In a surprising turn of events, the Dallas County Elections Department (DCED) appears to have discreetly updated its online sample ballots on Thursday evening.
This action follows allegations that the downloadable PDFs on the website were not merely sample ballots, but actual voter ballots.
Barry Wernick, a Republican candidate for Texas House District 108, lodged a complaint with the Texas secretary of state on Tuesday, as reported by The Blaze. Wernick alleged that his actual ballot was available online. He further claimed that anyone possessing a Dallas County voter's first and last name, along with their date of birth, could access a downloadable, printable ballot.
Wernick detailed his experience, stating, "After clicking on the link & being transferred to the Clarity Elections portal, instead of seeing a sample ballot, I viewed a downloadable & printable .pdf file of my actual die-cut mail-in ballot with a colored stamp of the initials (HG) of Election Administrator Heider Garcia." He also noted that the ballot was "not locked, encrypted, or watermarked in any way."
The Republican candidate expressed concerns about the potential for misuse of these ballots. He warned that someone could "easily and legally print out or digitally manipulate that voter's ballot" and then "illegally and potentially surreptitiously inject it into the system thereby disenfranchising and diluting" voters.
The Blaze News team replicated Wernick's process on Thursday morning, using the information of another Texas voter, a Blaze Media employee residing in Dallas County. The results were identical to Wernick's findings. However, when the process was repeated on Thursday evening, the online ballot had a "sample" watermark and lacked any signed initials at the bottom, indicating a change had been made.
The DCED has yet to respond to requests for comment on these allegations and the subsequent changes.
The Texas secretary of state, while unable to comment on formal election complaints due to privacy considerations, did provide some insight. "I can point out that printing a sample ballot does not provide a means for it to be inserted into the election process as there are checks for ballots both for in-person voting and voting by mail. There is not a way for voters to use a sample ballot in place of a regular ballot," the secretary of state stated.
Jonathan Brill, President of SOE Software, the company operating the Clarity Elections portal, also responded to the allegations. "I am only aware of this matter from your email, and I haven't directly connected with the Dallas County Elections," he told The Blaze. He clarified that their software is not designed for, nor does it have any involvement with voted ballots, including tabulation. "Rather, we created and host Dallas County Election's website (including showing SAMPLE ballots) and then facilitate the reporting of results on Election Night. Said more simply, we have nothing to do with live ballots. Our system only presents sample ballots."
While the DCED's silent modifications to the online ballots may have addressed the immediate concerns, questions remain about the initial availability of actual ballots online. The potential for voter disenfranchisement and dilution, as warned by Wernick, underscores the importance of secure and reliable election processes.
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