Bexar County election officials say they corrected a ballot problem that caused some voters in split school-district areas to receive the wrong ballot.
The county said it received incorrect data from the state and that the error affected ballot styles - the list of races and propositions a voter sees based on where they live.
In some cases, that could mean a voter did not see a school district race or proposition they should have been able to vote on. Other voters may have seen an item connected to a school district where they do not live.
County Elections Administrator Michele Carew said the problem involved areas where school district boundaries divide neighborhoods or even streets.
“It wasn’t just school districts, but what happened was the data we received from the state, there were splits in districts,” Carew said. “So if you’re looking at a street, and this side might be one school district and this side might be another, the data received from the state transposed the ballot styles.”
Carew said the problem affected 150 district splits and was corrected within about an hour after officials learned about it. She said the county will not know how many individual voters received an incorrect ballot until ballots are returned and reviewed.
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Northside ISD voters have raised concerns about missing district propositions on their ballots. Separately, Natalie Martinez, a Somerset ISD spokesperson, told KSAT that at least three voters reported that a District 3 item was missing from their ballots.
Martinez said the district notified candidates and the Bexar County Elections Department. She said county elections staff told the district they were aware of the issue and working on it.
The county has not confirmed whether the Somerset reports are connected to the same ballot problem involving other school districts.
Jon Taylor, a UTSA political science professor, said the issue is significant for voters who may not have had a chance to vote on an item that belonged on their ballot.
“It’s a big deal to anybody that actually voted and thinking, wait, I didn’t get a chance to vote in either a school board election or a proposition for a school district,” Taylor said. “And that’s totally valid to be upset and concerned.”
The county has said voters cannot simply receive another ballot once they have cast one. That leaves unanswered questions about how many voters may have voted before the problem was fixed and whether any action is available to them.
Taylor said a ballot error could become more significant if enough voters were affected to potentially change the result of a race or proposition.
“It would have to be a substantial number of people that could be proved to have influenced and impacted the election results,” Taylor said.
KSAT asked Bexar County Elections how many voters received an incorrect ballot, how many had already voted before the correction and what options exist for those voters.
As of Wednesday afternoon, the county had not answered those questions but acknowledged it was working on them. KSAT also contacted the Texas Secretary of State’s Office and had not received a response.
Voters who have not yet cast a ballot should review it carefully before submitting it. Anyone who believes a race or proposition is missing should stop and ask the election judge for help.
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