BREAKING: Texas Secretary of State Office Knew and Did Nothing About HART-E Voting Machine Malfunctions

By Faith Chatham - Oct. 26, 2018

Austin, TX— This evening, ABC13 Houston reported that the Texas Secretary of State and election administrators knew about voting machine malfunctions for years and refused to do anything about it.

The malfunction can lead to straight-ticket Democratic voters casting a ballot for Republican Sen. Ted Cruz if they don’t review and correct their ballot before pressing the red cast button.

Highlights:

• Ft. Bend County Election Administrator John Oldham said, “he’s talked to the Secretary of State more than once about the problem. It has not been fixed aside from signs provided by the Secretary of State to warn voters to check their selections.”
• “Sam Taylor, at the Texas Secretary of State’s office, tells 13 Investigates the problem is “user error” and not something their office could fix. Taylor suggests a vendor could or should handle any upgrades, but the state has not asked vendors to do so.”Texas Democratic Party Chair Gilberto Hinojosa issued the following statement:
  “The first step in solving a problem is recognizing that you have one. And the Texas Secretary of State’s office has one. This is not a new problem, their office knew about potential flaws in their voting machines and chose to ignore them for years.
  “Instead of owning up to their mistake, Texas’ Republican government blamed voters and did nothing.
  “The Texas Democratic Party demands the Texas Secretary of State take responsibility for their failures and immediately take action to inform voters to double-check their ballots.”
  Actions the Texas Secretary of State could take right now to inform voters:
  • Launch a statewide public service announcement to inform voters on broadcast and cable television in multiple languages.
  • Launch a comprehensive voter information program in multiple languages through radio, digital, and print advertisements.
  • Train poll workers to verbally remind voters to double-check their ballot.
  • Post additional signs reminding voters to check their ballots before submitting.
  • Log all instances of machine malfunction.