K2U11 Investigates continues to follow
the issues that plagued the Hars
County elections back in Novemb.
We've been fighting for recordso
learn more about what went wrond
why there was a low supply of bt
paper at some voting locations.
It has been quite a fight
to get these records.
At first Harris County
denied K2U elevens request.
Then the state ruled the
records should be made public,
but the county soon to block their release.
Finally, K2U11 Investigates
got some of what we asked
for. Termin Rakowski
joins us with the latest.
The records do not answer the main question,
how many voters were turned away
because of paper ballot shortag.
But as you'll see, they do revel
a lot about what was going on
behind the scenes on Election D.
For the November election, Harrs
County had a real time system to track
the amount of ballot paper usedt
it didn't work. How do we know?
Take a look at this report writn
by the Harris County Elections
Administration Office in Novembr
and recently released to KHOU.
It says that tracking system was
effectively unusable for Ed Elen
Day because it ran at a fractiof
its normal pace due to an overld
volume of queries being run.
As for the initial supply of ballot paper,
Harris County did an analysis tt
said in a perfect world to accot
for spoilage issues like paper ,
157 voting locations should have
started with more paper on Election Day.
County election records show 47
of those got extra deliveries,
but they do not include cases
like this election judge told us
I had to send him to neighborin.
Precincts that did have paper,
some election workers had to
borrow from their neighbors.
It basically became a game of
Survivor. At that point, how may
paper deliveries were there?
Overall, there are records for 97 locations,
but the county concedes some
of its records are incomplete.
Take this delivery log spreadsh,
the employee who released it tos
because of the rush of ballot pr
during the 4:00 to 7:00 PM hour.
We could not keep up with help
tickets and ran out so they didt
get entered into the spreadshee.
This graphic from Harris County shows that
end of day voting rush below, it reads.
It can become a logistical neard
possibility to make runs to locations
which are overwhelmed by or after 5:00 PM.
Here's an example of that logistical mess.
A technician arrived at 5:30 for more
paper but wasn't dispatched out until 7:45.
By then, it wasn't needed.
We tried to ask Elections Administrator
Clifford Tatum about all of thi,
but his office declined our
on camera interview request.
We are upgrading election syste.
In April, he did outline system
upgrades before the Harris
County Election Commission.
Those include software updates,
improved ratios of call center
operators and field technicians,
A digitized inventory system
for paper and equipment.
And a ticketing system to track
calls and issues more efficient.
We're able to dispatch those tickets,
we're able to see that ticket get closed,
and we're able to monitor the ss
of that ticket until it's close.
Back to the main question, how y
voters were turned away on Election Day?
Again, none of the records we've
received so far can answer that.
However, the county referred us to a press
release it sent out back in April, it said,
based on an analysis of voter checkin times.
A small fraction, approximately 3% of vote
centers actually experienced a gap in voting.
Again, we're still waiting
on some records we requested,
including emails and text messages from
Administrator Tatum around Election Day.
Months later,
Harris County has not released .
Back to you, Jeremy Ragowski.
We know you'll keep working it.
Thank you.