Updated at 12:30 p.m. Sunday: Revised to add new comments from Dallas County Democratic Party Chairwoman Carol Donovan.

An untold number of Super Tuesday ballots were not counted in Dallas County, according to court documents obtained by The Dallas Morning News. County officials are seeking court intervention to add them to the total.

According to the documents, ballots from 44 vote tabulating machines were not included in the final tally that Dallas County submitted earlier this week. Without knowing how many votes are at issue, it’s unclear whether the outcomes of any races will change.

Dallas County Elections Administrator Toni Pippins-Poole submitted a petition Friday in a state district court asking to reopen the county’s central counting station for a recount and re-tabulation of paper ballots from the 44 machines.

Toni Pippins-Poole (Mona Reeder / THE DALLAS MORNING NEWS)

“Because of these discrepancies and after conferring with the Texas Secretary of State, it has been determined that the most accurate records are the paper ballots from those locations," the petition states.

In an affidavit filed along with the petition, Pippins-Poole says the problems were uncovered after the polls closed, when election officials weren’t able to match the number of voters who signed in to cast ballots at some polling places with the number of ballots received from those locations.

Eventually, it was determined that ballots from the 44 machines in question were unaccounted for, Pippins-Poole wrote in the affidavit.

It’s unknown which polling stations were involved. In all, 454 polling places were open on election day.

A recount, if granted, would involve taking paper ballots from the ballot collection boxes of those 44 machines and running them through the county’s central counting station’s tabulator, Pippins-Poole said in her petition.

It’s unknown when any recount of the ballots in question would occur. The petition asks the court to set a date and time so that officials from both parties may attend and observe.

This is the first primary election in which Dallas County used new voting equipment known as ballot making machines. Voters use touch screens to make their selections. Votes are recorded on a piece of paper, which is than scanned by a tabulator. Results are also stored on thumb drives, which are delivered to a central location for final tallying.

The Texas Tribune first reported on the request to reopen the election in a story published online Saturday.

Pippins-Poole statement

Efforts to reach Pippins-Poole for comment were unsuccessful, although Saturday evening she released a statement that mirrored much of the language in her petition and affidavit.

“Of the 44 thumb drives, 16 were not received in a timely manner to the Elections Department and 28 were from voting machines not scheduled to be used but were used by volunteer election officials,” the statement read.

“When Dallas County procured new election equipment, we ensured that paper ballot records were included with our electronic system," the statement continued. "With this paper backup, and in consultation with the Texas Secretary of State, I have asked the District Court to allow Dallas County to authorize the recount of the paper ballots through the central counting station tabulator.”

Rodney Anderson, head of the Dallas County Republican Party, said in a prepared statement: “We anxiously await the explanation from the election department on how this could possibly happen. Until such time when we have this, I’m not going to deal in supposition and what-ifs.”

Rodney Anderson and Carol Donovan lead the Dallas County Republican and Democratic parties, respectively.

Republican County Commissioner J.J. Koch, who on Saturday tweeted that Pippins-Poole should resign, said the problems stem from the shift to countywide voting, which allows voters to cast ballots at any polling place in the county, rather than an assigned precinct.

“It’s well-known that one of our biggest problems is the elections department,” Koch said Saturday. “It’s just never been able to administer elections at a high level.”

Koch said that he supports the idea of countywide voting but that officials rushed the system out too quickly and without proper support in place.

"We implemented this new process with very little training and very little resources,” he said. “Some election workers worked 20-hour days in the days leading up to the election, which is ridiculous. There’s no way under those circumstances that you can conduct elections without mistakes.”

Carol Donovan, chairwoman of the Dallas County Democratic Party, said that Koch’s comments weren’t productive and that some election failures could be traced to the Republican Party.

“It is unfortunate that Commissioner J.J. Koch has prematurely requested the resignation of Dallas County Election Administrator Toni Pippins-Poole before any investigation and before the court has ruled on her petition for recount," Donovan said Sunday via email. "Much of the confusion and delays were caused by the failure of the local Republican Party to staff even half of the Dallas County vote centers.”

U.S. Senate race

State Sen. Royce West, D-Dallas, spent election night sweating out a tight race for the Democratic Party’s nomination for U.S. Senate.

On Wednesday, he pulled ahead of Austin labor activist Cristina Tzintzún Ramirez to finish second in the contest and join former Air Force helicopter pilot MJ Hegar in a runoff. West’s stronghold is Dallas County, particularly southern precincts.

“Of course, we want to count right,” West said Saturday. “Every vote should be counted and we want the county to get to the bottom of what happened.”

Tzintzún Ramirez, who finished about 24,000 votes behind West in statewide balloting, could not be reached for comment Saturday.

Donovan said she considered it unlikely that a recount would change the outcomes of any races, based on the margins of Dallas County results as they currently stand.

“Our main concern is that the vote of every Dallas County voter, Democratic or Republican, is counted," she said in her email. "Due to the small number of uncounted ballots, it is doubtful that the outcome of Tuesday’s vote will change. Nevertheless, the Dallas County Election Director is correctly requesting permission of the Court to open the ballot process so that all ballots can be counted.”

Stephen Chang, director of communications for the Texas secretary of state’s office, said the office is aware of the situation and providing guidance.

If the recount is granted, “the Dallas County Elections Department will post notice of the recount and make the results available to the public as quickly as possible,” Pippins-Poole said in her statement.

Staff writers Gromer Jeffers Jr. and Allie Morris contributed to this report.