A Texas district attorney found out first-hand Tuesday that elections can go very wrong.
Harris County District Attorney Kim Ogg went to the polls to vote for herself in a Democratic primary, only to be told she had already voted, which was news to her, according to KTRK-TV.
Elections officials went back in the records to learn that Ogg’s domestic partner, who shares the same address, had participated in early voting. The partner’s ballot was cast in Ogg’s name.
“It’s very concerning that this could happen to a candidate, and you know, I just want to warn people — make sure you know who you’re voting under in terms of your name,” Ogg said. “I’ve just never seen this happen.”
“I’m the top law enforcement official in the third-biggest jurisdiction in the nation,” Ogg told CNN. “If it can happen to the district attorney, it can happen to anyone.”
The glitch was fixed on Tuesday, so Ogg could vote.
“There are no flawless elections. There are smooth elections, and we normally mitigate all of that in a very timely manner,” Harris County Clerk Teneshia Hudspeth said, according to KTRK.
Hudspeth issued a full explanation in a statement, according to KRIV.
“An incident occurred this morning when DA Kim Ogg went to the polls and was unable to cast a ballot because a ballot had already been cast in her name. Last Friday, DA Ogg’s partner, who is registered to vote at the same address as DA Ogg, voted in the primary elections under DA Ogg’s name,” Hudspeth said.
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“In the process of qualifying a voter, each voter is asked to review and confirm the information that appears on the iPad screen, including the voter’s name. If the information that appears on the screen is not accurate, the voter must notify the election clerk,” the statement continued.
“In this instance, the DA’s partner must not have noticed that the information was not hers, and proceeded to sign in and vote under DA Ogg’s name. We believe this is the case because DA Ogg’s partner signed her own name as confirmation.”
The statement said the mistake was not the fault of the clerk’s office.
“Clerical errors can occur at the polls. It is the voter’s responsibility to verify that their information on the iPad screen is correct before they are issued a poll code,” the statement said.
Ogg told CNN she had some issues with the explanation.
“The entire reason that we have election judges and poll workers is to prevent voter fraud, so checking the ID against the person who is voting and against the rolls is entirely the job of the clerk,” she said. “I was shocked when they pushed it back on the voter.”
Ogg said she was worried that similar errors could effectively disenfranchise voters without the time to wait.
“The average citizen probably would not have waited an hour and still not able to vote,” Ogg said, according to KHOU.
“When I left and I worried that people have to pick up kids, be at work, if they have such problems, I urge them to exercise patience, but I’m concerned voters might be turned off by this mistake and leave.”
