Complaint Filed In Stephens County Over Possible Election Day Voting Concerns
By: Katie Thompson
Updated: November 17, 2012
Stephens county commissioners spent this morning canvassing votes from last week's election. It's a normal protocol that is now laced with suspicion that some of those votes may have been miscounted.
"There were people in the courthouse that night that believe there were violations that had occurred and they contacted me that night," said Stephens County Sheriff Dan Young.
Young says his department has filed a formal complaint with the Texas Ethics Commission.
"If a citizen comes in and gives me a complaint, I'm obligated by law to forward that complaint to the proper authorities," said Young. "What was explained to me that night was it was simply the wrong push of a button and it added the early county votes to each individual precinct."
According the Stephens County tax office, boards are posted in the courthouse so people can view the totals. A preliminary report was printed at some point during the night and instead of separating precinct and early totals, those two numbers were combined and placed under precinct one.
Election officials say they quickly realized their mistake, separated the two numbers and posted the changes to the board.
"Grand totals never changed," said Stephens County Tax Assessor Terry Sullivan.
Election officials are confident that the final vote count is correct and county commissioners agree. Any complaints are now in the hands of the Texas Ethics Commission for review.
The Texas Ethics Commission says all complaints are kept confidential until an investigation has been completed. They're only released to the public if a penalty is found.
"There were people in the courthouse that night that believe there were violations that had occurred and they contacted me that night," said Stephens County Sheriff Dan Young.
Young says his department has filed a formal complaint with the Texas Ethics Commission.
"If a citizen comes in and gives me a complaint, I'm obligated by law to forward that complaint to the proper authorities," said Young. "What was explained to me that night was it was simply the wrong push of a button and it added the early county votes to each individual precinct."
According the Stephens County tax office, boards are posted in the courthouse so people can view the totals. A preliminary report was printed at some point during the night and instead of separating precinct and early totals, those two numbers were combined and placed under precinct one.
Election officials say they quickly realized their mistake, separated the two numbers and posted the changes to the board.
"Grand totals never changed," said Stephens County Tax Assessor Terry Sullivan.
Election officials are confident that the final vote count is correct and county commissioners agree. Any complaints are now in the hands of the Texas Ethics Commission for review.
The Texas Ethics Commission says all complaints are kept confidential until an investigation has been completed. They're only released to the public if a penalty is found.
