Voting officials in a Texas county are being forced to clear up misconceptions about the voting machines being used for the 2024 election after one voter in the county alleged foul play.
Tarrant County resident Tony Carpenter, who voted at the White Settlement Library polling site, reported that the selection printed out on his ballot did not reflect the selection he made on the voting machine monitor.
Carpenter, who had intended to vote for former President Donald Trump, reported that his ballot displayed his selection as Vice President Kamala Harris instead when it was printed out.
"As I checked that my selection for president had changed to the other candidate, I reported it to the staff controlling the poll. They took the ballot and gave me another one," Carpenter told journalists at the Dallas Express. "They said they would destroy the first ballot, but they seemed to keep the bar code and only destroyed the text. The whole thing seemed a little out of control. They did not stop use of the machine I used to have it checked for malfunctions."
In a video posted to social media app X (formerly Twitter), Elections Administrator Clint Ludwig explains that the incident involving Carpenter was the only one of it's kind to occur at that polling station, reassuring voters that the voting machines would reflect their actual vote and that widespread election fraud was not in practice in Tarrant County.
"We have one individual who's claimed that the vote that they selected on the machine was not the vote that was printed on the printed ballot. What we believe to have occurred is that the individual did make a selection on the machine and that selection was printed on their ballot. When they went to cast their ballot they checked it and realized that was not the vote that they wanted," Ludwig said.
Update from our Elections Administrator regarding spoiled ballots. https://t.co/6kHPnhx8Yz pic.twitter.com/VASutuZYXD
— Tarrant County Elections (@tarrantelection) October 22, 2024
County Judge Tim O'Hare also stated that Carpenter's original ballot was invalidated, and that he was permitted to go through once more and correct his vote to his preferred candidate, he told NBC 5.
The elections office also communicated that the county "has no reason to believe that votes are being switched by the voting system."
The incident was quickly picked up by social media, with many Trump-supporting users attributing it to purported election fraud. Tarrant County Republican Chair Bo French also acknowledged the incident, stating that he promptly reported it to elections administrators.
"Reports were that people who selected Trump on the screen were seeing Harris on the printed ballot. This was reported to the Election Judge and in at least one case the voter was issued a new ballot to vote again. I immediately reported this to the TC Elections Administrator," wrote French on X. "After your ballot is printed, make sure you check to make sure your selections are accurate!"
Today at 3:29pm I was notified of reports that voters were experiencing problems. Reports were that people who selected Trump on the screen were seeing Harris on the printed ballot. This was reported to the Election Judge and in at least one case the voter was issued a new ballot… pic.twitter.com/idKTSgm3qS
— Bo French (@Bo_French_TX) October 21, 2024
Other social media users have taken to online platforms to express their frustrations with voting machines in general following their use in Tarrant County.
"This stuff boils my blood. Why does Tarrant County utilize such an obviously vulnerable system? This also shows that it's not just Dominion machines that are corrupt. ALL voting machines are intrinsically evil," said one X user in a viral post on the app, referencing the conspiracy theory that Dominion Voting Systems was involved in a plot to rig the 2020 U.S. election by providing states with faulty voting machines. "We need to go back to voting in person on election day, with human hands as the counting method. So far, we have seen reports of flips like this happening in Tennesee, Georgia, and now Texas."
BREAKING: Voters in Tarrant County, Texas are reporting that the voting machines are flipping their votes from Trump to Kamala Harris
— George (@BehizyTweets) October 21, 2024
The voters are urging everyone else to check their printed ballots before submitting them.
"Reports were that people who selected Trump on the… pic.twitter.com/cWbjnZGBZB
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