Technical Glitch Delays Election Results In Williamson County

WILLIAMSON COUNTY, TX — A technical glitch has delayed the precinct-by-precinct election results in Wiliamson County, officials said on Friday.

The delay is due to a programing issue by the county's vendor Tenex Software Solutions, according to a county advisory. The Williamson County Elections Department discovered a minor, non-results-impacting discrepancy in how precinct results were being reported in the Election Management System on Monday, Nov. 2, officials said, adding this was resolved for Election Day voting. Precinct-by-precinct level reports will be available by the Secretary of State’s deadline of Nov. 16, county officials noted.

According to Tenex Software Solutions, the vendor for Williamson County’s electronic poll books (EPBs), during the Early Voting period only, the EPBs were providing correct information for ballot styles, but were not attaching the precinct associations. As a result, while the published early voting results were accurate, the results for early voting could not be separated by voting precinct, according to county officials.

“All voters received the correct ballot style with the proper contests and candidates based on each voter’s precinct assignment," Timothy Vlach, senior director, client services and communications for Tenex Software Solutions, Inc., said in a prepared statement. "This discrepancy was resolved as soon as it was identified by the combined efforts of the county and Tenex and effective controls have been put into place to ensure future elections will not be impacted."

Williamson County Elections Administrator Chris Davis added: “The Elections Department will seek a district court order to re-convene the Central Counting Station only to re-scan Early Voting in-person ballots to accurately generate a precinct-level report, as required by state law. The re-scanning of ballot cards will not affect the summary totals released on the night of Tuesday, Nov. 3, 2020.”c

Williamson County Judge Bill Gravell expressed confidence in the process: “I have complete confidence in our elections process. Re-scanning the ballots will give both political parties the granular details that they are requesting."