Election integrity activist Barry Wernick scored a victory over the weekend.
The Dallas Election Administrator’s office took down and replaced a website feature that allowed any user to access an unused ballot for any citizen in Dallas County. Whereas last week, the website allowed anyone with the legal name and birthday of a Dallas County citizen to see the exact ballot that person would use in a polling booth, complete with official markings and signatures, the new website feature only allows a user to see a watermarked “sample ballot.”
The change was made sometime over the weekend of the 26th of October and was first noticed by Wernick. “UPDATE: DALLAS COUNTY ELECTIONS DEPARTMENT REPLACES ACTUAL BALLOTS WITH SAMPLE BALLOTS Dallas County Elections replaces actual ballots with samples ballots. “SAMPLE” watermarked on the ballot. Election Administrator Heider Garcia’s initials ‘HG’ removed from the ballot,” the lawyer posted on X on the morning of Oct. 27.
🚨UPDATE: DALLAS COUNTY ELECTIONS DEPARTMENT REPLACES ACTUAL BALLOTS WITH SAMPLE BALLOTS🚨
Dallas County Elections replaces actual ballots with samples ballots.
"SAMPLE" watermarked on the ballot.
Election Administrator Heider Garcia's initials "HG" removed from the ballot. https://t.co/iMd4TJJuqi pic.twitter.com/kPWezwlD8v— Barry Wernick (@Wernick4Dallas) October 27, 2024
This action came after a tweet thread from Wernick exposing the issue in the proceeding week and after the former candidate for Texas House District 108 filed a complaint with the Secretary of State’s Office. “BREAKING: COMPLAINT FILED WITH SOS AGAINST DALLAS COUNTY ELECTIONS Tonight, I filed a complaint with @TXsecofstate against the Dallas County Elections Department after going to the DCED website to view my “sample ballot” only find out what I was looking at was not a sample,” he posted on October 22nd.
🚨BREAKING: COMPLAINT FILED WITH SOS AGAINST DALLAS COUNTY ELECTIONS🚨
🧵Tonight, I filed a complaint with @TXsecofstate against the Dallas County Elections Department after going to the DCED website to view my "sample ballot" only find out what I was looking at was not a sample.— Barry Wernick (@Wernick4Dallas) October 23, 2024
While the change from Election Administrator Heider Garcia’s office will certainly be seen as a victory for election integrity activists, Wernick warned at the time of his complaint that it could be too late. “Irreparable damage may have already been done. But enjoining Dallas County Elections Department from publishing this information could mitigate any future potential damage to our election system. Please share. And send in your own complaint. The squeaky wheel gets the grease,” he wrote.
Wernick had initially raised concerns, as previously reported by The Dallas Express, that the availability of real ballots online could “illegally and potentially surreptitiously [be injected] into the system thereby disenfranchising and diluting my vote…”
Neither Garcia’s Twitter nor the Dallas County Elections website has put out a statement about the change.