Dem DA in Texas has trouble voting after her live-in 'partner' casts ballot in her name: 'Clerical errors can occur'

A Democrat district attorney running for re-election in Texas had some difficulty casting a ballot this week after poll workers informed her that someone else had already voted in her name.

For the past eight years, Kim Ogg has been the district attorney of Harris County, the most heavily populated county in Texas. This year, she faced a strong Democrat primary challenger, former prosecutor Sean Teare, so she knew she needed every vote she could get if she wanted to serve a third term.

But her re-election hopes took a back seat on Tuesday after she walked into the Love Park Community Center in Houston to cast her ballot only to learn that a ballot had already been cast in her name. It turns out that fellow attorney Olivia Jordan, repeatedly described as Ogg's live-in "partner," voted last Friday during the state's early voting period, and as the two women share the same address, she had somehow been issued a ballot for Ogg.

"In this instance, DA Ogg's partner must have not noticed that the information was not hers and proceeded to sign in under DA Ogg's name," claimed Harris County Clerk Teneshia Hudspeth.

According to Ogg, Jordan brought her passport and voter registration with her the day she voted. She even "signed her own name" on the voting paperwork, further indicating that she simply made an honest mistake and meant no harm, Hudspeth added.

To untangle the mess and allow Ogg to vote, polling officials "transferred" Jordan's vote so that it was listed under her name and offered to give Ogg a provisional ballot, but Ogg refused it. Instead, she left the polling station and returned later to vote in normal fashion. But she expressed concern that others in a similar situation might not have the means or the time to make multiple trips to the polls.

"The average citizen probably would not have waited an hour and still not able to vote," she said. "When I left and I worried that people have to pick up kids, be at work, if they have such problems, I urge them to exercise patience, but I’m concerned voters might be turned off by this mistake and leave."

Hudspeth admitted that "clerical errors can occur at polls" but still insisted that voters must ensure that they are following the proper procedures.

"In the process of qualifying a voter, each voter is asked to review and confirm the information that appears on the iPad screen, including the voter’s name. If the information that appears on the screen is not accurate, the voter must notify the election clerk," she said in a statement.

"It is the voter’s responsibility to verify that their information on the iPad screen is correct before they are issued a poll code."

Though Ogg's and Jordan's votes were eventually cast properly, they do not seem to have helped Ogg's re-election prospects. Challenger Teare trounced Ogg, 65,000 votes to just 18,000 votes.

Teare also trounced Ogg in terms of fundraising, amassing $750,000 in the first half of 2023, more than ten times the amount Ogg raised during the same period, Chron reported. Ogg blamed the fundraising disparity on a "Soros investment" in her opponent.

In her concession speech, Ogg railed against her "enemies" and claimed she performed her duties despite significant pressure to do otherwise. "If doing my job cost me my job, then I leave with my head held high," she told supporters.

Teare will now face Republican Dan Simons, a former prosecutor, in the general election in November.

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