Fire Forces an Early Voting Scramble

HOUSTON - It was 4 a.m. on Friday when firefighters received word that flames were racing through a northeast Houston warehouse.

The sheer ferocity of the flames made it obvious to firefighters that they were not going to save the building, which housed the Harris County Clerk Election Technology Center.

Inside the warehouse, the flames destroyed an estimated $30 million in Harris County voting equipment, including about 10,000 E-Slate voting machines and judge booth controls.

The equipment would have been used in the upcoming November election supervised by County Clerk Beverly Kaufman.

"Given the tremendous amount of heat and the roof collapsing, I have no confidence at all that there's anything left that we could utilize in there," Kaufman says.

The fire will force the county to scramble to find replacement machines for early voting that begins October 18.

But Kaufman insists enough machines will be borrowed from other counties or possibly purchased from vendors.

"There is no doubt in my mind that we're going to have a timely election here and that we're going to take care of the voters," Kaufman says.

Friday afternoon firefighters remained at the smoldering scene to extinguish any lingering hotspots.

Arson investigators methodically explored the charred remains. Houston Fire Department spokesman Patrick Trahan says investigators won't have an easy job looking for a cause.

"It's a slow, tedious process, dangerous process. They will take their time and go through it and take whatever time they need to get the information from it," Trahan says.