Fact check: Some Texas races determined based on early voting tallies aren't proof of fraud

Kate S. Petersen, USA TODAY
·4 min read
2

The claim: Post implies Bexar, Texas, elections 'called' with '0% of precincts reporting' are proof of fraud

An Instagram post suggests that recent elections in Bexar County, Texas, were fraudulent.

"Many elections in Bexar are being called with 0% of precincts reporting! I smell MAJOR FRAUD," reads a Nov. 8 Instagram post.

The post garnered nearly 300 likes in less than two weeks.

But this claim is misleading. Heavy use of early voting in Bexar County means candidates can build insurmountable leads before the Election Day votes are even counted, so some candidates made concessions or declared victory early on election night, an election official said. There's no connection to voter fraud.

USA TODAY reached out to the Instagram user who shared the post for comment.

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Heavy early and absentee voting in Bexar County often leads to concessions by candidates soon after early votes released

Bexar County did not "call" any races before all the votes were tallied, Jacque Callanen, the Bexar County elections administrator, told USA TODAY. In fact, the election results will not be certified by the county until the canvas is complete on Nov. 22.

However, because early and absentee voter turnouts tend to be so high in Bexar – nearly 72% in the recent election – concessions and celebrations by individual candidates are common after early voting results are released.

"When candidates look at their races from early voting, and somebody has 63% of the vote, they're having their celebrations," said Callanen.

But she emphasized that these are "calls" made by individual candidates, not the county.

"There were celebrations all over the county, but was it official? Absolutely not," she said.

Trish DeBerry, a candidate for Bexar County judge, conceded her race hours before the last of the election night tallies were released. A video of her concession speech was published by a local news station at 8:30 p.m. CST that night.

At 9:02 p.m. CST, the San Antonio Express-News tweeted that DeBerry had conceded "after former District Judge Peter Sakai took the lead in early voting totals." The photo in the tweet showed Sakai apparently celebrating, holding a bouquet of flowers.

Early voting data showed Sakai at 59% and DeBerry at 38%.

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Bexar County early and absentee voting made up majority of votes, released just after polls closed

A misunderstanding of the information in the publicly reported early voting data could also have led to confusion.

Early election results released about 7 p.m. CST showed showed that roughly 390,000 early voting and absentee ballots had been tallied, according to data Callanen provided to PolitiFact. This release also said "Vote Centers 0 of 302" and showed no Election Day ballot count.

This "vote center" tally only referred to Election Day polling places, not those used for early voting, Callanen.

Updated "vote center" tallies and the Election Day ballot counts were publicly posted throughout the evening as the Election Day votes were counted, she said. For instance, the tally had changed to 41 of 302 by the first update at 9:15 p.m. that night.

Additional updates were released at 9:46 p.m., 10:22 p.m. and 11:14 p.m., said Callanen. The full preliminary results, which included early, absentee and Election Day votes, were issued at 12:41 a.m. on Nov. 9 and are still available on the Bexar County election webpage. It shows all 302 vote centers reporting.

This claim was also debunked by PolitiFact.

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Our rating: Missing context

Based on our research, we rate MISSING CONTEXT a post that implies Bexar, Texas, elections "called" with “0% of precincts reporting” are proof of fraud. While early and absentee voting results showed "0 of 302" vote centers reporting, this referred only to Election Day voting. Most Bexar County votes were cast before Election Day. At least one candidate conceded her race based on early voting results, according to local media. The county did not "call" any races before all the votes were tallied and will not certify the results until Nov. 22.

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This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Fact check: Some Texas races determined by early voting tallies