Posted on 07/29/2004 11:52:50 AM PDT by SwinneySwitch
Decision means precincts will have to spend millions over the next 18 months
AUSTIN - All Texas counties must do away with punch-card voting systems or paper ballots in the next 18 months.
Starting Jan. 1, 2006, federal law requires every voting precinct in Texas to have a Direct Recording Electronic-voting machine, which electronically records votes, eliminating the use of paper and punch cards.
Upgrading voting equipment will cost Texas counties millions of dollars as the federal government is providing grant funds that just cover about a third of the upgrade cost.
Some county officials this week protested having to upgrade voting systems that function properly. County officials called the federal law a "knee-jerk" reaction to a voting mess in Florida.
Congress passed the Help America Vote Act in 2002 to modernize the country's voting systems after Florida's voting and ballot counting problems during the 2000 _general election. In Texas, nine counties use punch-card voting systems, which were the cause of Florida's problems.
About 145 counties use optical scanners to read a completed ballot, 87 counties still count paper ballots and 13 counties have upgraded to electronic voting machines.
Nueces County, which has 126 precincts, uses optical scanners purchased in 1992. The county will upgrade the system at a cost of between $1.5 million and $2 million, said Sandra Garcia, chief deputy county clerk of Nueces County. The county might get about $600,000 in a federal grant, Garcia said.
"I'm hoping to do this within the year," Garcia said. "You can't really make such a drastic change for the general election because it's so large. I'd like to get it by next year's constitutional election (in November)."
Garcia and other Texas county election officials were in Austin this week to learn about the voting machines the secretary of state has certified for use.
Counties will spend millions to buy voting machines that many officials say are unnecessary.
Lubbock County Judge Tom Head called for other county officials to ignore the federal law. "They can't sue all 254 of us," Head said.
But Ann McGeehan, director of elections at the Secretary of State's Office, warned county officials that taking federal money to buy the voting machines and not purchasing the equipment could lead to federal audits and U.S. Department of Justice enforcement action.
''It's frightening because someone is jamming this down our throats," Janecka said. "It would be great - if we had a voting problem."
In Texas, primaries are run by the Republican and Democratic parties. The parties sometimes share polling space, but often do not. County officials worry they might have to purchase or lease twice as many voting machines to comply with the federal law if the political parties don't vote in the same precincts and use the same equipment.
"Under the state law we can only charge the political party $5 for rental of the machine," Garcia said. "But if we have to lease them from a company, they aren't going to charge us $5. The state has to change that."
Nationally, some election officials and advocacy groups worry about not having a paper copy of a vote. McGeehan said Texas law has safeguarded the electronic system against fraud and abuse.
"It's highly unlikely there would be any manipulation in Texas," McGeehan said. "And if there were, it would be detected."
Texas law requires the machines record a "real-time" audit log, so there is a record of votes, McGeehan said.
Monica Wolfson can be reached at (512) 334-6642 or by e-mail at HYPERLINK mailto:_wolfsonm@scripps.com _wolfsonm@scripps.com.
Ah. I'm sure that will help prevent fraud. If you make something illegal, it never happens again. </sarcasm>.
If there is no auditable means to perform recounts when I go to vote, I'll seriously consider just walking out. There really is no point voting if it's nothing but bits in a bucket. I'm a professional nerd and paranoid. There is no way in hell I'll trust voting equipment that is all electronic.
Amen, they thought the recount mess was bad when there was something to count? This has disaster written all over it. Dems are already whining about Diebold and Chuck Hagel. For the good of the country, I'd rather not give them anything to whine about when they lose. There really needs to be a way to verify the votes, and recount if needed. Something about this feels wrong.
Yeah, but if they cannot even comprehend paper you think they will know how to use new fangled technology?
I don't like the idea of being forced to go paperless in voting (no matter which party is forcing it). Of course I realize even paper ballots can be stuffed in a sock, but I do not think that computers are the way to go. I do not see how they are any easier and they seem more ripe for fraud.
In November 2000, the breakdown of election systems used by counties was:
Paper Ballot: 90 Optical Scan: 150 Punch Card: 14 Lever Machine: 3 DRE: 4
bump!
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