The Harris County (Texas) District Attorney, Kim Ogg, discovered firsthand that errors can occur during elections when she went to vote for herself in the Democratic primary and was told she had already voted.
Officials determined that Ogg’s domestic partner, who shares the same address, had voted early using Ogg’s name by mistake.
“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.”
While the issue was resolved and Ogg was able to cast her ballot, she expressed concerns that similar errors could disenfranchise voters who don’t have time to wait to resolve them.
“I’m the top law enforcement official in the third-biggest jurisdiction in the nation,” Ogg added. “If it can happen to the district attorney, it can happen to anyone.”
“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.
“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.
“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 added.
“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.”
“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 said preventing voter fraud is the responsibility of election clerks and poll workers through properly verifying voters’ identities and registration.
“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,” Ogg said. “I was shocked when they pushed it back on the voter.”
“The average citizen probably would not have waited an hour and still not able to vote,” Ogg said.
“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.”
The incident highlighted the potential for errors to undermine confidence in the election process.
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