Hidalgo County verifies votes manually after human error causes confusion

EDINBURG — Hidalgo County Elections Department employees on Wednesday manually verified the total ballots cast in Tuesday’s primary elections after a misstep in the vote-tallying procedure sparked late-night confusion in countywide races.

The protocol for any election calls for the verification process to take place the morning after the polls close, county elections administrator Yvonne Ramón said at a news conference Wednesday. But candidates angry with the results had a heightened interest in the process this year.

A simple human error caused the county to report incorrect results that erroneously showed all precincts reporting at 8 p.m., Ramón said. The error was immediately identified by the software vendor and elections department employees but required a lengthy process to correct before accurate figures could be released.

In one race, Precinct 5 justice of the peace candidate Hilda Caceres thought she had easily won election by an 1,100-vote margin. But the corrected tally posted at 11:22 p.m. showed incumbent Speedy Jackson with a narrow, 40-vote victory.

In the Delta, supporters for both candidates partied late into the night thinking they had won the election.

Candidates continued protesting the results Wednesday at the elections department office in Edinburg.

Alma Garza, who missed dragging District Attorney Rene Guerra into a runoff by about 800 votes, carried a report into the office that showed previous issues with the elections software the county uses. But Ramón said the software wasn’t to blame.

“It’s not a glitch,” Ramón told Garza at the front of the office. “It’s a simple procedural step that was left off.”

The skipped step was essentially just to clear the early voting data when the first 13 precincts to report were input, said Joaquin Garcia, the information technology manager for the elections department.

Like a calculator that hasn’t been cleared, the error caused the election day results to include early voting results. Because early voting takes place in all 140 precincts in the county, the system showed all precincts reporting at 8 p.m. even though 127 hadn’t done so yet.

Garcia worked with a technician from vendor Elections Systems & Software who was already on site to clear the data and start over. But the posted results, which were neither final nor correct, prompted early celebrations for candidates.

Ultimately, the corrected results produced a change of victor in only one race.

Hilda Caceres met with elections department staff behind closed doors Wednesday to discuss her options after the revised results shoved her from the winner’s circle into runner-up status.

Her ex-husband, campaign supporter Cain Caceres, said the abrupt change — up by 1,100 votes and then down by 40 — had her backers questioning whether other errors were made.

“All the inconsistencies leave you doubting the results when you lose by 40 votes,” he said.

This isn’t the first the county has experienced problems with the software that tallies the votes.

In November 2006, elections department officials noticed a problem after early voting results in U.S. House District 28 put Constitution Party candidate Ron Avery ahead of Democratic incumbent Henry Cuellar by 2,000 votes with 2,200 counted. Former elections administrator Teresa Navarro blamed the problem on a programming error.

The Hidalgo County Elections Commission — five-member board that oversees the elections department — plans to discuss the software at its meeting next week to determine whether procedural changes can be made, said County Judge Rene Ramirez, who serves on that board. Although the problem was remedied, he said the county has a responsibility to provide a smooth, accurate election.

“In any election, you’re going to have a high degree of emotion,” Ramirez said. “To find out one minute you’re winning the election and the next you’re not, those are the kinds of things we need to avoid.”

Jared Janes covers Hidalgo County government, Edinburg and general assignments for The Monitor. He can be reached at (956) 683-4424.