Dallas County says software glitch is causing long wait times at many voting locations
Some voters waited more than two hours at the Dallas County Garland Center.
Author: Brittani Moncrease
Published: 7:06 PM CDT October 21, 2024
Updated: 7:06 PM CDT October 21, 2024
DALLAS COUNTY, Texas — As dozens stood in line to vote, WFAA sat down on a cement bench with Helen Carter at the Dallas College Garland Center. She sat while her husband held their place in line to vote.
“It was all the way around the building,” said Carter, a Garland resident, as she referred to the long line of voters. “I thought I’d be able to walk in and walk out…I had to wait.”
She waited more than two hours to vote. “Whew! It was long,” said Carter.
The wait time wasn’t just long for her but for other voters too. “You bet. I didn’t think it would be like this on the first day, but it’s great,” said Raymond Faraizel, another Garland resident.
“It’s a bit of shock, a bit of awe, and a little bit of happiness about that. It’s good to have a line,” said Robert Opel, a voter in Garland.
Joe and Kathy Walshe sported their “I Voted” stickers after waiting almost three hours. “They have 27 voting booths…but most of them are vacant because they only have five check-ins,” said Joe Walshe. “The check-in equipment is new and slow. That’s creating quite a bit of delay.”
WFAA went to the county and asked why voting lines were so long. We met up with Dallas County Commissioner,John Wiley Price, at the Martin Luther King, Jr. Library in South Dallas to get the answer.
Price said there was a problem with the electronic poll books which are used to check in voters.
“This is just totally unacceptable,” said Price. “Glitching, having to reboot. We specifically upgraded, supposedly, from 4G to 5G. That was supposed to have been an issue. Now we have all these new poll books and we’re still having the same issue.”
The County Commissioner said it was a software glitch. Other counties such as Tarrant County have not had this problem because they use a different election vendor than Dallas County. The state lets counties choose from two election vendors.
“This vendor needs to figure it out and they need to figure it out today,” said Price.
Luckily, that glitch has not stopped voters. “No used to being frustrated. It’ll run up my blood pressure and it still won’t help none,” said Carter.
Like Carter, to many voters, the length of the line or the time to wait didn’t matter. What mattered to them most was exercising their right to vote.
That glitch made the process take longer, but it did not impact the actual voting.
WFAA reached out to the Dallas County Elections Department. They said, Monday morning, that the Garland location did request more electronic poll books. We reached out to the department about the issue but have not heard back.
Commissioner Price said the glitch is expected to be fixed by Monday evening to prevent any further issues throughout the early voting process.
As of 8 p.m., more than 56,300 Dallas County voters cast their ballots.
https://www.wfaa.com/article/news/politics/elections/dallas-county-says-software-glitch-long-lines-early-voting-locations/287-eaf2c8f6-c519-4827-b1ed-bd1ce8ec80b9
As of 3 p.m. in Tarrant County, about 43,765 people cast their ballot, officials said. That's compared to the approx. 42,000 on the entire first day of early voting in the 2020 presidential election.
https://www.wfaa.com/article/news/politics/elections/tarrant-countys-first-day-of-early-voting-hits-high-numbers-including-college-campus-sites/287-aa58e874-2abf-4a55-ae7a-ae7a863c0669