Equipment Malfunctions, Other Issues Affect Some Election Results Across Texas

The Texas primary is now technically in the books, but some of the results still were not in by Wednesday morning.

There were reports of issues and delays in counting overnight in Dallas, Tarrant, and Denton counties, all of which have since turned in results.

However, Harris County elections officials are continuing to experience major issues in the Houston area.

The Texas Secretary of State's office said it was informed that Harris County election officials would not be able to count and report results for all early and Election Day votes by the statutory deadline of 7 p.m. on Wednesday.

Under Texas law, all Texas counties are required to report early and Election Day results within 24 hours of polls closing on election night.

"We are closely monitoring the progress of ballot tabulation in Harris County to ensure all relevant election laws are followed and that legitimately cast ballots by Harris County voters in both the Democratic and Republican Primary Elections are counted accurately and timely," Secretary of State John Scott said. "Harris County election officials have indicated to our office that the delay in ballot tabulation is due only to damaged ballot sheets that must be duplicated before they can be scanned by ballot tabulators at the central count location. Our office stands ready to assist Harris County election officials, and all county election officials throughout the state, in complying with Texas Election Code requirements for accurately tabulating and reporting Primary Election results. We want to ensure that all Texans who have cast a ballot in this year's Primary Elections can have confidence in the accuracy of results."

Dallas Mayor Eric Johnson did not mince words when he tweeted Wednesday morning about the issues reported across the state.

If we can’t know the results of most elections held in the state within minutes of the last voters in line casting their votes, then what exactly is the point of electronic voting machines? Waiting up all night to see who won these elections is ridiculous to be doing in 2022!

— Mayor Eric Johnson (@Johnson4Dallas) March 2, 2022

Tarrant County reported issues with voting equipment malfunctioning, leading to delays in results. Even by 10 p.m. Tuesday, elections officials only had early returns available in the races.

“I wish we knew exactly what the problem was, but we don’t,” said County Judge Glen Whitley on Tuesday night. “Now instead of getting unofficial results, we’re going to bring all of the equipment in and make sure we’re getting the official results.”

Whitley said he had been on the phone with the county’s elections administration as well as the manufacturer of the voting equipment.

All results were reported Wednesday before 5 a.m., revealing Republican Tim O'Hare beating Price for the nomination by 48,529 votes. O'Hare's lead was previewed in early returns, which were being reported Tuesday night.

In Dallas County, elections officials said there were no delays in the precinct results.

“Those results, as well as the Early Vote results, were reported as regularly scheduled," Michael Scarpello, elections administrator for Dallas County, said in an email to NBC 5. "We did work into the night duplicating some unreadable mail ballots that comprised a very small fraction of the overall election results."

NBC 5 learned on Tuesday that ten polling locations, mostly in North Dallas, never opened due to worker shortages, leading to concerns for people who did not have transportation to get to other locations.

In Denton County, issues regarding the Republican primary election results arose due to problems with equipment.

The problems involved electronic polling books used to verify voters. This caused workers to call in for each verification, which slowed things down while the machines were reset.

This delayed results by hours for the county, but all results were turned in by early Wednesday morning.