Dallas County judge to consider recount petition on Tuesday
DALLAS - A Dallas County judge on Tuesday will consider a petition to recount primary results.
The county determined a recount was needed after election officials found "ballots from 44 of the precinct scanner and tabulator machines" were "unaccounted for" during the reconciliation process. That means there could be thousands of votes that were not counted.
A decision by the judge to allow a recount due to missed ballots would be incredibly rare, if not unprecedented in the history of the county.
“It's devastating,” said Dallas County Commissioner J.J. Koch, the lone Republican on the commissioners’ court. “How could this happen? The short answer is poor planning. If you have poor planning you will definitely have poor execution.”
The issue was first uncovered when the number of people who checked in to vote did not match the number of votes cast. Each vote center is supposed to turn in about one or two flash drives with all of the votes cast in the vote center.
When the discrepancy in votes was discovered they found that 44 flash drives were missing. Those drives have since been located.
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Koch had voiced concerns before the primary elections took place.
“You think it would be great to say ‘I told you so,’ but it is not, it is awful,” Koch said.
Dallas County Democrats Chairwoman Carol Donovan says she is still working to get answers about exactly what happened.
“What we are being told is some people did not remember to take out the flash drive and make sure it was turned into the elections department,” Donovan said.
Donnovan says the high voter turnout and a learning curve with the new equipment contributed to the issues.
“This turnout pushed the boundaries of machinery and involved a lot more election judges. I think with additional training, they will be, it will be clear these flash drives are imperative to be turned in with the equipment,” Donovan said.
Elections administrator Toni Pippins-Poole was not available for comment Monday.
Donovan believes this is a situation that will never happen again.
“Most people learn from their mistakes, I can bet the elections department will be darn sure they get every single flash drive in their office before they close the vote,” Donovan said.
Pippins-Poole is requesting that only the paper ballots associated with the 44 flash drives be counted.
Dallas County Republicans, however, want a recount of all of the ballots in the county.
The hearing before the judge is scheduled for 10 a.m. Tuesday.