
Fort Bend blames 'clerical error' for countywide voting trouble
Most of the dust has settled from Tuesday's elections, but some voters in Fort Bend County say they won't forget the experience of being turned away as they tried to cast their ballot.
County leaders cited technical issues that they say caused problems with polling sites countywide for several hours.
ABC13's Tony Atkins heard from frustrated voters, some of whom said they returned multiple times hoping to cast their ballots. Some people said they were able to cast ballots, but others weren't.
The county said election registration data from a city school election on May 2 caused the issue.
"Essentially, we have to click a button to upload a file. The incorrect file was chosen. So it does stem from a clerical error," Election Administrator Chase Wilson said on Tuesday.
In short, he said the wrong voter registration file was sent to polling places countywide, so some people were unable to be checked in.
County Judge Daniel Wong said that led to voting issues from around 2 p.m until 5 p.m.
Throughout the afternoon, questions over possibly extending the 7 p.m. voting deadline loomed. Officials, not moving forward with that proposal, cited a need for both Democratic and Republican leaders to agree on it.
Officials stressed this was not malicious and claimed the integrity of Tuesday's vote was not hindered.
"This issue does not impact the integrity... or the totals of the ballots that were submitted. This has to do with the check-in process at the polling locations, resulting in delays in today's voting," Wilson added.











