Elections Office Refutes Claims of Rigged Voting Booths

Amid rumors and reports of fraudulent ballots being cast in Texas, the Lubbock County Elections Office maintains that the voting machines in Lubbock County have not been compromised.

“These are concerns we see every presidential (election) due to social media,” said elections administrator Dorothy Kennedy.

“These equipments [sic] are recording devices and they’re only going to do what the voter tells them, or the user tells them to do,” Kennedy explained.

Lubbock voter Linda Darlene Woods said she had trouble at the polls when she attempted to cast her ballot for a straight party Republican ticket.

“Thought I better go back and check it, because of all the rumors I’ve heard,” Woods said. She claimed that before pressing submit, she went back and discovered that her vote was not going to be cast the way she thought she selected.

“When I did, my ballot, my person I had checked for straight party ticket was not Trump. It was showing as Hillary Clinton,” Woods explained.

Woods said she asked an election worker for help, and that person had a difficult time helping her switch her vote to Trump before submitting.

“It doesn’t matter which party it is, and if it’s Democrat, Republican, or whatever. Whatever person they vote for should be the person that is awarded that vote,” she stated.

Kennedy said the most common problem is that voters accidentally deselect the candidate they are choosing, and then not checking the summary pages before casting their ballot.

“I had a couple of people tell me today (Tuesday) when they called on the phone, they say ‘well we saw the screen but it said press any key continue’ and so they kind of blew past the warning screen and didn’t read the details here,” Kennedy said.

“Bottom line what we’ve seen is that it has been more of a user error, and so we need our voters to make sure that they’re going to the summary page and they’re seeing it,” added Kennedy.

Kennedy said the system is not connected to the internet “in any shape form or fashion,” and therefore “not attached to any internet or cabling device that puts them open for hacking.”

Kennedy explained that her office has not been able to “recreate any of the things that they’re saying on social media.”

“I just want to assure people that this comes up and it gets out on social media,and you can’t always believe what you see on social media, but we have had that happen the last three presidential cycles,” she added.

Woods remains confident that the system is flawed.

“It bothers me because we’ve stooped this low that we’ve rigged voting selections now,” she stated.

When asked if she truly believed the system is rigged, she replied candidly, “Yes.”

When asked why, she explained, “Heard a lot about it, and read a lot about it. And I think if it wasn’t rigged this wouldn’t have happened today [Tuesday].”

In response to election officials’ remarks about human error, Woods replied, “I think it is not error, I think it is fraud. They’re trying to get the election to go like someone wants it to go.”

A judge in Potter County commented on the allegations of fraudulent voting machines, saying “As everyone knows, our fingers don’t always do what our brain tells them.”

Texas Governor Greg Abbot issued a statement on Facebook Tuesday night, reminding voters to double check their ballots before submitting:

For additional information from the Lubbock County Elections Office, visit votelubbock.org.