Fort Bend County hasn't said how many voters impacted by election error

RICHMOND, Texas (KTRK) -- Fort Bend County election officials aren't saying yet how many voters were impacted by Tuesday's technical error, despite some races being separated by only hundreds of votes.

As Fort Bend County voters showed up at primary runoff sites on Tuesday, some of them were left looking for answers. The election administrator said problems started at 2:30 p.m. on Tuesday and lasted for nearly three hours.

It wasn't until after 6:00 p.m. that officials held a news conference to tell voters what was going on. ABC13 asked Democratic judge candidate Dexter McCoy on Wednesday if he knew why there was a delay.

"I'm not certain why," McCoy said. "We had people showing up to vote, and they had no idea what was going on."

That's not the only unanswered question. Election leaders haven't said how many voters this impacted.

Eyewitness News asked election and elected officials how many voters were impacted, especially since two races have a difference of less than 600 votes.

"I'm not sure how many folks cast provisional ballots as a result of this incident yesterday, but we can get that information and ensure those votes are counted," McCoy said.

Elections Administrator Chase Wilson wouldn't answer ABC13's questions on Wednesday, but he did answer them the day before. He told ABC13 that a county employee uploaded an outdated file to the system.

That file, he said, impacted check-in machines, preventing some voters from being able to use a regular ballot.

"We have checklists in place where we verify, and double-verify this information before it's uploaded," Wilson explained. "Unfortunately, this just appears to be occasional oversight."

It's an error county officials say they want to look closer at. McCoy said he wants an investigation.

So does his general election opponent, Daniel Wong. On Tuesday, Wong said he believes the error wasn't anything that could alter the integrity of the voting process.

"At no time was there any concern regarding election integrity, vote tabulation, or the security of the election process," Wong said.

While the elections administrator wouldn't answer our questions, we've asked to see what messages he was sending as this unfolded. ABC13 requested several officials' messages to see if we can learn more about what happened.