A report filed days before the general election that questioned whether Dallas County was ripe for "dead voter" fraud didn't intend to suggest such fraud was ongoing, only that it was possible, said the deputy editor of Texas Watchdog.

The online news organization filed the report Thursday under the headline "Dead voters cast ballots in Dallas County" and noted in the story that two men who were confirmed dead may have had ballots cast in their names in the March Democratic primary.

The report also concluded that about 6,000 people whose personal information matches information in federal death records are still listed on Dallas voter rolls.

"We don't claim to have any evidence that there is widespread voter fraud," said Jennifer Peebles, deputy editor of Texas Watchdog.

The purpose of the report was to draw attention to a potential problem before Election Day, she said.

Ms. Peebles said reporters for Texas Watchdog concluded there were 48 people on Dallas rolls who may be dead and have had votes cast in their names in recent elections.

That number was not featured in the online report because "the point of our story was more about the potential for fraud that could occur, not necessarily fraudulent elections from the past," Ms. Peebles wrote in a follow-up e-mail.

The Texas Watchdog report has drawn sharp criticism from Dallas election officials, who said they have seen no evidence the county is at risk for dead voter fraud. County elections administrator Bruce Sherbet said 6,000 is wildly out of proportion with the number of dead who may be on the rolls.

He also said a review of county voting records about the two dead men cited in the report as having cast ballots showed that clerical errors, not fraud, were responsible for counting the men as voting.

A poll worker accidentally marked the men as having voted, but no one signed the poll register in their name, a necessary step to receive and cast a ballot, he said.

Mr. Sherbet said the county plans to review the list of 48 names of possible dead people who may have voted in past elections. But he said a cursory review of the first 12 names on the list suggests votes were not cast in those people's names.

Ms. Peebles said Texas Watchdog reporters requested to review polling data from the county, but that elections officials declined, citing the busy pre-election schedule.