Upton officials blame glitch

RANKIN Before the first ballot was even cast, last week’s primary election in Upton County generated quite a buzz. With nearly two dozen candidates vying for eight offices and a heated district clerk race energizing the electorate, the political forecast called for an above-average turnout March 2.

But almost no one expected early returns to show that more than 95 percent of the 2,063 registered voters made it to the polls on Election Day. Upon closer review, election officials recovered signatures for only 1,273 votes and were left scratching their heads.

Unanswered questions have mounted in the aftermath, and the fiasco that followed the disputed election has polarized this tiny town and led to accusations of voter fraud. Several residents last week reported their outrage to television stations and the Secretary of State elections division, demanding answers.

Public officials’ unwillingness to speak publicly about the problem only served to fan the flames of conspiracy theories. But after a week of uncertainty, election officials have finally offered a plausible explanation for the unlikely numbers.

Kristin E. Reid, the county’s Democratic chair, said Monday that an apparent glitch in the county’s electronic voting system appears to have tabulated early voting numbers twice, distorting the results.

After several recounts — Reid said she had to purchase a new calculator over the weekend because she “burnt (hers) out” — officials have determined the actual turnout appears to be closer to 62 percent of the electorate.

Reid said the adjusted numbers, if accurate, would only affect the outcome of the county judge race, forcing a runoff between Bill Eyler and incumbent Vikki Bradley. Eyler had “won” outright in the five-candidate race, according to the unofficial, disputed returns.

Reid said the county has requested a representative from Election Systems & Software re-tabulate the votes sometime today and attempt to determine what went wrong March 2. She said the final votes will not be canvassed until Thursday.

“Of all the times for something to go wrong, it had to be this time,” Reid said of the political climate this primary election, which included an emotional district clerk campaign between incumbent LaWanda McMurray and challenger Janet Lindsey. By all accounts, McMurray appears to have defeated Lindsey.

Reid said election officials anticipated heightened scrutiny because McMurray was in charge of tabulating the votes and also running for office. She said officials took several precautions to avoid the appearance of a conflict of interest, including moving early voting to an adjacent office in the courthouse.

“We have tried to cover our butts so much in this election,” Reid said. “That’s the reason we hired the lady from ES&S to come down. I told LaWanda, when you’re uploading these (votes) on the computer, you’re the one doing that. That’s not going to look real good.”

The Secretary of State elections division said Monday that it was still reviewing “a handful” of complaints and that it had not determined whether to forward them to the attorney general’s office for investigation. An ES&S spokeswoman had not responded to a request for comment by Monday evening.

A number of Rankin residents have been appalled by the confusion in the aftermath of the election.

“This is the biggest mess that I’ve seen in my entire life,” said one former justice of the peace who declined to give her name Monday in line at the Town & Country. “No one knows what happened.”

One of the most outspoken critics of the election officials, who declined to speak on the record, said Monday morning that she had not slept all week because she was “scared to death” about what happened.

“I think they should have another election,” she said at her home Monday, “but no one has asked me.”

Others, like McMurray supporter Phillip West, resent the detractors who have created an unnecessary uproar. “There was no conspiracy — no nothing,” West said Monday after eating his lunch at the Senior Citizens Center.

Hal Hutchens, publisher and editor of the local Pecos River Dispatch said he could not recall an election like this one, calling the commotion “a political nightmare.”

He pointed out that the election season is far from over. Next week, voters return to the polls to decide on a controversial tax rollback. The runoff election will be conducted in April and the municipal elections follow in May.

“There’s been some heated contests in the past,” Hutchens said. “But I’ve never seen one that was this rough.”