Tonight, the Texas Civil Rights Project (“TCRP”) sent a letter to the Secretary of State asking that his office take immediate action to inform Texans regarding the straight-ticket voting issues on the Hart eSlate voting machines. The letter asks the Secretary to:
- Devise a system to more proactively inform voters at polling places about this potential problem.
- Substantially increase outreach efforts across the state to communicate more clearly to the public the reason some voters are facing this issue; the need for voters to check their ballot choices before submitting their ballot; and that voters should immediately ask for help from a poll worker if they encounter any issue.
TCRP initially heard of this issue after voters contacted the non-partisan election protection hotline at 866-OUR-VOTE. So far, TCRP has received reports from voters in six counties (Harris, Montgomery, Fort Bend, Travis, Tarrant, and McLennan) who either had this happen to them, or were concerned that it may have happened to them.
At a minimum, 5.1 million Texas voters in six of the largest counties in Texas that use Hart eSlate voting machines may be affected by this issue.