What’s an election day without a little drama?
Fort Bend County officials reported that its electronic system at all polling locations was back online Tuesday afternoon following a two-hour outage, reportedly due to a bug in the check-in system.
Some voters who arrived during the outage, hoping to cast ballots in primary runoff elections, gave up and went home.
Questions were raised about whether the county elections system was the target of a cyberattack, a rumor that was not confirmed. Fort Bend County Elections Administrator Chase Wilson told KPRC that a bad file was uploaded and the system temporarily shut down, but the integrity of the election was not compromised. It was later reported that the technical issues were solely with the check-in system, not the voting machines.
Voters who arrived at polling places during the outage were told they could cast provisional ballots.
U.S. Congressman Christian Menefee, who is facing U.S. Congressman Al Green in a runoff for Texas District 18, called for extended voting hours, saying, “Voters should not lose a single minute of their right to vote because of a technical failure outside of their control. The right to vote is too important to shortchange anyone.”
Precinct 4 Commissioner Dexter McCoy, in a Democratic runoff with Rachelle Carter for Fort Bend County judge, encouraged voters to continue turning out at the polls despite the technical disruptions.
“We are aware of ongoing issues affecting voting across Fort Bend County and the County Elections Administration is working to resolve them as quickly as possible,” McCoy said in a statement just before the service was restored. “Right now, the most important message our community needs to have is this: If you are legally registered to vote you should not let these issues get in the way. Go to your nearest voting location and cast your ballot, even if it needs to be a provisional ballot.”
This story is developing and more information will be posted as it becomes available.
