Tarrant County officials have begun an investigation after election equipment malfunctioned on March 1, leading to delays in results.
According to The Dallas Morning News, Tarrant County elections administrator Heider Garcia said he is working closely with the state of Texas and Hart InterCivic, the election equipment vendor, to find what went wrong on March 1.
Garcia told the DMN that all parties involved would give the issue the attention it deserves.
“When we have the answer, we want to be sure it’s a complete answer and that we have a plan in place to make sure it doesn’t happen again,” he said.
According to the DMN, the results of the election were not released until after 4 a.m. on March 2. Election results were supposed to start coming in by 10 p.m. on election night.
Tarrant County’s voting machines generate two copies of election results — unofficial results, released on election nights, and official results, released the following day — but county employees were forced to expedite the official results after the equipment failed to generate the early, unofficial results.
However, Garcia maintained that he has complete confidence in the integrity and accuracy of the election.
“We can say without hesitation the results reflect the will of the voters,” Garcia added.
Judge Glen Whitley, the outgoing Tarrant County judge, said he was also working with the vendors to determine the cause of the equipment failure.
“Computers are great until they’re not, and right now they’re not,” Whitley told the DMN. “We’ll make sure we get it right, and that’s the key.”