A voting machines was swapped out in McLennan County following reports they weren’t working properly.

Both McLennan County Elections Administrator Kathy Van Wolfe and Democratic Party Chair Mary Duty confirmed the news, however, their reasoning differed.

Duty said she’d been receiving numerous complaints about the machines not working earlier in the week.

“Some people were being handed paper tickets,” said Duty.

Duty waited outside the elections office Wednesday morning to alert Van Wolfe about the reports she’d been fielding.

“She said it was too late to switch them out today (Wednesday) because voting had already started, but they’re going to change out those machines before voting starts Thursday,” said Duty.

Van Wolfe said there was nothing wrong with the machines and believed it was operator error. But out of an abundance of caution the machine was replaced.

“We’re going to do it (change the machines) anyway to make sure everybody feels comfortable,” said Van Wolfe.

The county has used the same electronic “wheel” voting machines, eSlate, since 2005, Van Wolfe said.

Officials said there had been a significant increase in voters at the location during this election.

“We had 500 voters go through there Tuesday,” said Duty.