Trump votes changed to Clinton on machines, some early Texas voters say — but officials have an explanation

Some early voters in Texas said that when they reviewed their straight-ticket Republican selections on voting machines one significant candidate choice was changed.

While all down-ballot names indeed reflected GOP candidates, their presidential choice showed Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton instead of Republican nominee Donald Trump, the Dallas Morning News reported.

But elections officials counter that the claims are probably false or due to user error, the paper said.

More from the Morning News:

Garland City Council member Stephen Stanley said he went to an early voting station at Nicholson Memorial South Branch Library on Tuesday morning while campaigning for candidates on the ballot.

He said around noon a woman came out of the library and told him she had tried to vote straight ticket Republican but the machine said she had voted straight Democrat.

The woman told him a poll worker apologized that the machine wasn't working and instructed her to use another one.

Stanley said he was worried about people who didn't double-check their ballots.

"My question is how many other people didn't know," Stanley told the paper.

Dallas County elections administrator Toni Pippins-Poole said voters should double-check their ballots prior to submitting them, the Morning News reported.

Pippins-Poole added that while she's caught wind of malfunctioning machine reports, voters in the end were able to cast ballots the way they wanted and no official complaints were logged.

"It could be voter error or it could be that the machine needs to be recalibrated," she told the paper.

Collin County election official Bruce Sherbet said he's heard similar complaints, the Morning News reported, but all of them came in after voters departed polling places — which is too late to check specific machines.

"If we had someone in the polling place tell us, 'Hey, it marked something other than what I marked on the screen,' we would stop the process and ask the voter to show us," Sherbet told the paper. "We can absolutely verify and check that in front of the voter. If there were a problem with a machine, it would immediately be taken out of service."

Tarrant County election administrator Frank Phillips told WFAA-TV his office got two complaints Monday — one of them about a presidential vote switching from Trump to Clinton.

Phillips told the station the voter's ballot was voided and she used another machine. But no issues were detected with the machine after examination, WFAA reported.

"Typically, we've found it's voter error with the equipment," Phillips told the station. "Sometimes they vote straight party and then click on another candidate. ... There is not an issue with the equipment."

Hector DeLeon, director of communications for voter outreach in Harris County, told the Morning News that sometimes voters select a presidential candidate twice to reaffirm a vote — which actually deselects that choice.

Getty Images/Saul Loeb-Pool

Potter County elections administrator Melynn Huntly told the Morning News that the touch-screen machines are tested twice before they're approved and calibrated daily to ensure accurate vote recordings.

"Historically, these complaints are typically voter error," Huntley told the paper.

Shannon Lackey, elections administrator for Randall County, told the Morning News that a faulty machine report in her county most likely was user error.

"A lot of voters only vote every four years," she told the paper. "They're not comfortable with the machines."

Lackey added: "I don't do this because it's fun. I do it because I believe in what I do. If I didn't believe in the machines, I wouldn't be sitting here doing this."