Voters given wrong ballots, hundreds of ballots missing, Dallas County Elections says

Voters across Dallas County were given the wrong ballot, meaning they voted in the wrong precinct, according to a report presented to city and county leaders.

“(Of those), only 1,755 are within the boundaries of the city of Dallas. That's the number of people within Dallas, city of Dallas, that we estimate got the wrong ballot,” said Dallas County Election Administrator Heider Garcia.

Garcia said poll workers quickly identified and helped resolve the issue.

“The root cause of everything that happened here goes back to that first day of early voting and that malfunction of the poll books and its software,” Garcia said.

“I think more than ever, transparency and accuracy reporting in our elections is essential,” said Cara Mendelsohn, Dallas City Councilwoman for District 12.

On Tuesday afternoon, Garcia also addressed the issues with Dallas County Commissioners.

“We had locations where you had more people on the ballots or more ballots on account of the people,” Garcia said.

According to Garcia, 190 ballots are missing from a church voting location in DeSoto because of a system error.

“There is no explanation for it. We have talked to all poll workers, we have looked for every material they return, every box and everything. We will keep investigating and do what we can, but right now, we don't have an answer,” Garcia said.

Despite the discrepancies, both city and county officials voted to certify the final results saying the margin of error is not large enough to affect any of the races.

“I think Prop U was the closest one within the city of Dallas, and I think it was about 2,900 votes. You would still have to find a lot more than that to make a case that every single person who got the rumble would have voted one way or another,” Garcia said.

Proposition U received 50.5% support from Dallas voters, which mandates minimum police staffing of at least 4,000 officers.

“I don't think there is any numbers that are large enough within the context of specific races that would make a case that the outcome would have been different,” Garcia said.

And while Garcia said he is open to finding another software, he has to consider the cost.

“I think this was bad enough and big enough that at the very least we should do is consider that that is an option,” Garcia said “It's more than just the device. It's the finances, right? We're talking about $2 or $3 million to replace all of this…. What I perceive is everybody is upset enough that that option is looking more and more like the option.”