Many North Texans are not waiting for November 5 to cast a ballot, they’re taking advantage of early voting even if it means a long wait. NBC 5’s Katy Blakey explains what slowed things down in Dallas County.
Election Day Voting — What to Know
- Election Day Voter Guide: Learn where and when you can vote on Election Day, what's on your ballot, and what you'll need to bring to the polls.
- When is Election Day? Tuesday, Nov. 5, is Election Day. On that day, polls will be open in Texas from 7 a.m. until 7 p.m. You will be allowed to vote if you're in line by 7 p.m. on Election Day.
- Who or what is on the ballot? Click the links to filter races by category or county: Federal races | State races | Collin County | Dallas County | Denton County | Tarrant County | ISD props | City props
- How many people voted early? More than 1 million people voted early in North Texas. Click here to see daily early voting totals from Collin, Dallas, Denton and Tarrant counties and compare them to those from previous years.
- How can I vote by mail? The deadline to request a mail-in ballot has passed. Mail-in ballots must be received or postmarked by 7 p.m., Tuesday, Nov. 5. More information on voting by mail in Texas is here.
For the most part, early voting has gone smoothly across North Texas.
However, in Dallas County, some voters faced long lines on Monday. Election officials blamed the wait on a software issue, which they said is now fixed.
Some voters reported waiting more than an hour and a half to cast their ballot Monday, but on Tuesday, most voters at the Samuell Grand Rec Center in East Dallas said their wait was around 20 minutes.
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Dallas County Elections Administrator Heider Garcia said the software issue with electronic poll books has been fixed.
According to the elections department, on Monday, when voters checked in, some electronic poll books displayed a black screen or error message, and in some cases, they printed the wrong ballot.
This slowed lines at some locations as poll workers had to reboot machines.
Garcia said poll book devices were collected from some of the first locations that reported issues and sent to the vendor, Election Systems & Software, for review.
“We were able to identify the software problem with the vendor, the vendor provided a workaround for that problem, and today everything is running smoothly,” Garcia said. “Some voters did get the wrong ballot and there’s actually no legal remedy for that. We can not go back to a box and pull out a ballot or give a second ballot to a voter. So that’s something that will have to be dealt with after the election if it has an impact or not."
When asked if he felt confident that every vote was being counted, Garcia said yes.
“Absolutely. The problem [Monday] had nothing to do with voting or counting votes,” Garcia said.
In Sunnyvale, the issue prompted the school district to send a message reminding voters to double-check that their bond issue was on the ballot.
Wait times in Dallas County may be a bit longer because the Dallas city residents have 18 charter amendments to review.
Election officials say one of the best things you can do is review your sample ballot online. This way, you'll know your decision before stepping into the voting booth.
Weekends offer the shortest wait times; next week, Dallas County will offer extended early voting hours.
