Four voters at two Jefferson County early-voting sites say their touchscreen selections jumped to a different candidate this week, a problem local officials attribute to sensitive screens rather than anything sinister. Three of the reports came from the John Paul Davis site and one from Rogers Park on Oct. 22, with county leaders saying the equipment was tested and calibrated before the election began.
The reports surfaced after Jefferson County Democratic Party Chair Ramona Young said voters at the two early-voting locations told her their selections switched to another candidate once they touched the screen, according to 12News. Young said a correction button sometimes did not respond right away, and that voters might need to press it repeatedly before the screen switched back to their intended choice. She recorded a Facebook video about the reports and said the issue appeared to affect Democrats, Republicans and independents alike, worrying that some voters might not notice a changed selection and could end up casting an unintended vote.
Young called the Jefferson County Clerk’s Office a little after 8:30 a.m. Thursday, and a staff member there told her to fill out an incident report and mail it in. She went on to file an incident report at the courthouse that day, and said two of the voters whose experiences she relayed also filed reports with the Voter Protection Network of the Texas Democratic Party. Young said she planned to submit five or six additional incident reports and hoped the complaints would prompt an investigation and lead to a technician being dispatched to John Paul Davis, saying the issue needs to be addressed immediately. 12News reported it had reached out to the Jefferson County Republican Party for comment but had not received a response.
What the County Clerk Says Is Happening
County Clerk Roxanne Acosta-Hellberg said her office was aware of the reported problem and that someone had visited her office Thursday to report concerns about an incident from the day before, per the same 12News account…