Tatum on Election Day woes: 'Did we misallocate? That’s what I have to assess'

Election Day in Harris County was not without a host of problems, yet the county’s elections administrator is supposedly mum as to why they occurred, Houston-based media outlets reported. 

Per Houston NBC affiliate KPRC, Tuesday began with several polling locations experiencing things such as malfunctioning computers and paper ballot shortages. 

Houston CBS affiliate KHOU reported that some registered voters arrived to cast ballots only to leave without doing so, much to their chagrin.

One location that had a rough start to Election Day was the Metropolitan Multi-Service Center at 1475 W. Gray St., with “serious computer problems” leaving just two machines available to voters, KPRC reported. 

The site’s manager told the station that it didn’t experience any problems during the leadup to Tuesday.

A voter recalled to KHOU his frustrations at his polling place. 

The station reported that John Knoerzer left Shadow Forest Elementary School in Kingwood without casting his ballot. 

“First time I ever ran into a problem like that trying to vote,” Knoerzer said, the station reported. 

According to KHOU, the Harris County Republican Party fielded reports of paper ballot shortages from at least 15 election judges in the area. 

One judge claimed that her calls to a support line provided by the county went unanswered.

Harris County Elections Administrator Clifford Tatum asserted that his office didn’t “fumble” the simplest of Election Day tasks. 

“Did we misallocate? That’s what I have to assess,” Tatum said, KHOU reported. 

Per the station, Tatum, who is the second person to assume the office, vowed to “make some recommendations” on what his office “may need top to bottom.”