5/30/2014
Issues with voting machines delayed local primary runoff election returns Tuesday night as Cameron County saw nearly 2,000 more voters head to the polls than in 2010.
“We increased a bit,” said Chris Davis, administrator for the Cameron County Elections Office.
There were 11,102 total voters in the Democratic primary runoff races this month compared to 9,642 in 2010, the last similar election.
Davis noted that there was only one Democratic countywide runoff that year compared to the 2014 elections, which included three races where voters from across the county could participate.
Despite having only statewide races on the ballot, Republican turnout was up as well, Davis said.
The Republican voter total in the 2010 runoff was 979 compared to 1,482 during this month’s primary runoffs, where county voters mirrored state results in selecting four candidates for statewide GOP nominations.
Candidates Dan Patrick, Ken Paxton, Sid Miller and Ryan Sitton all won Cameron County as well as the Republican nod for their respective races.
Patrick will appear on the ballot in November as a candidate for Lieutenant Governor while Paxton will be up for Attorney General.
Miller will seek to be Commissioner of Agriculture while Sitton will compete for Railroad Commissioner.
Davis said while there were no Election Day issues with the Republicans, there were a few hiccups that delayed Democratic returns until after 11 p.m.
“It did take a long time,” Davis said Wednesday, explaining that he felt the delays were largely due to the efforts of poll workers to do things openly.
When two polling places had ballots that were uncounted because the machine wouldn’t accept them, the presiding election judges sequestered them under seal and brought them in separately.
Those ballots had to be added to precinct totals during the central count, which was held in the first floor jury room at the Cameron County Courthouse.
A precinct in Brownsville also had some issues with a vote tabulation machine, where a presiding judge noticed the total number of ballots cast differed by five from the reading on the machine.
While the machine said it had processed 122 ballots, only 117 had come in.
Davis commended the judge, who promptly filled out an affidavit and notified elections staffers.
Davis said a discussion with the Texas Secretary of State’s Office revealed the officials needed a court order to open the box.
Davis asked for that order and a district judge came by to grant it, leading to the opening of the ballot boxes in front of poll watchers.
Once tabulated, Davis said the presiding judge was proven right, as it seemed five ballots jammed within the mechanism and were counted twice.
“We were fortunate that that was caught,” Davis said, noting that the return delays were not egregious. “I’d rather finish late if it means getting the count accurate and correct and doing it all transparently and according to law.”
Election results are unofficial until canvassed.
Davis said the mandatory date for canvassing is June 5 and that the provisional ballot board will meet June 3.
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