Harris County District Attorney Kim Ogg said the last thing she expected when arriving at the polls this morning was to have trouble voting. After heading into Love Park Community Center, she was told by those working that she had already cast her ballot during the early voting period.
According to Ogg, after roughly 30 minutes, she asked those with Harris County Clerk Teneshia Hudspeth’s office to call Hudspeth. She added that nothing sounded correct and questioned who could’ve voted on her behalf.
Ogg was notified by Hudspeth that Ogg’s partner, Olivia Jordan, a fellow attorney, had cast a ballot in the district attorney’s name and that this vote would be “transferred,” and Ogg would be requalified to vote in her own name.
“I’m really concerned that this could affect other people. I don’t know that,” Ogg said. “But then I was very surprised to see that the clerk (Hudspeth) blamed it on user error. The whole purpose of having an election clerk and election judge is to prevent exactly this type of situation where somebody votes under one ID, but that’s not the right person.”
Ogg added that she figured that how the incident happened, how the elections department could be tracking it, and whether or not others have been affected would be investigated — but these questions remained unanswered for now.
“There is no voter error in elections. That’s the purpose of election judges and clerks in the voting polls. It’s to prevent fraud and ensure authenticity of the voter to their ID and their voter number.”
Read the full story at the Houston Press.
