Burst pipe soaks Waller voting equipment

A burst pipe in the Waller County elections office earlier this week left voting equipment drenched, causing concern for how it will function when residents go to the polls for coming elections.

After a security alarm went off, Waller County Elections Administrator Dan Teed arrived to his basement office Sunday to find “water was running everywhere, including on and through our voting equipment,” he wrote in an email to local news media.

Meanwhile, one of the worst storms in Waller County’s history was bearing down on the greater Houston region. Teed says county officials don’t believe the heavy rainfall caused the pipe to burst, but the storm necessitated close attention from them as the equipment crisis also unfolded.

Metal reinforcing the ceiling had to be cut through to reach the problematic pipe. About 60 pieces of voting equipment was removed from the office and opened to dry, Teed wrote.

Officials had planned to use the machinery in several city elections for which early voting begins Monday, as well as in the county’s primary runoff, which has early voting beginning May 16. The primary runoff election day is May 24.

While the equipment will be tested before use — officials are waiting for it to completely dry — it is designed to function even if it gets wet. There seemed neither money nor time to replace the damaged pieces right away. An estimate for replacing the equipment was about $800,000, an amount Teed wrote that a small county would be hard-pressed to find.

In his email, sent late Tuesday, Teed asked media agencies to “spread the word about what has

happened, and tell people we want them to be on the lookout regarding odd behavior by the machinery.”

Even with the plans to test it, Teed wrote, “we don’t want to take anything for granted.”

Waller County has long faced scrutiny for alleged attempts at disenfranchising voters, an issue that surfaced late last year and continued into 2016 with debate over whether an early-voting polling place should be opened at the student center of Prairie View A&M University, a historically black college that represents a large minority, Democratic voting bloc.

When reached by phone Wednesday, Teed was working to file an insurance claim.

“Our priority has to be getting ready for the elections,” he said.

Officials said that any problems observed with the voting equipment should be reported to vote@wallercounty.us.