Fort Bend County Voting Machines Experience Outage During Election Day

Voters across Fort Bend County experienced major delays and frustration Tuesday afternoon after a technical issue temporarily disrupted check ins at polling locations countywide.

According to Fort Bend County Elections Administrator Chase Wilson, the issue began shortly after 3:30 p.m. when a bad file was reportedly uploaded into the system, impacting voters attempting to check in before casting their ballots. Officials said the problem affected every polling location in the county, causing confusion and long waits for residents trying to vote.

Several voters contacted local media outlets after being told machines were down at locations including Hightower High School and Missouri City Baptist Church. Despite the outage, election officials stressed that votes cast before the technical issue remained secure and unaffected. Poll workers also began offering provisional ballots to eligible voters who still wanted to participate while crews worked to restore the system.

By around 5:30 p.m., county officials announced that a fix had been implemented and the issue was resolved. Administrators said they do not believe the outage was caused by malicious activity, though questions remain about whether polling hours could be extended to make up for lost time. Officials noted that extending voting hours remains an option if requested by both party chairs.

U.S. Representative Christian Menefee also addressed the situation, urging residents not to give up on voting despite the delays. Menefee encouraged voters to continue heading to the polls and called on county leaders to consider extending polling hours so no voter would lose their opportunity to cast a ballot because of the unexpected outage.

“The right to vote is too important to shortchange anyone,” Menefee said in a statement while encouraging affected residents to use provisional ballots if necessary.