Electronic voting hassles cause resident to not vote
By BARRY HALVORSON bhalvorson@journal-spectator.com

A problem with an electronic voting machine at the Boling Fire Station prompted one local resident to not participate in Tuesday's Texas Amendment election.

While trying to complete his ballot, Boling resident Jim Welch said that when he was voting on Amendment 11, the machine failed to record his vote and instead changed his vote on Amendment 8. The fire station was one of three consolidated locations where both the amendment and Boling ISD elections were being conducted.

"I tried it several times (to vote) and then showed the problem to one of the election judges," Welch said in an interview. "They gave me the option of starting with a new ballot on a different machine, but I said that I didn't want to vote if it was that easy to change things."

Wharton County Elections Administrator Judy Owens confirmed Welch's problem, saying she apologized for the problem. She added the situation was corrected a short time later without compromising the election.

"We went back and recalibrated the machine," she said. "Occasionally if someone press, press, presses a particular button it can cause problems. We had someone go out and fix things. Until then, we took that particular machine out of service. We had three at the location so it really wasn't a serious inconvenience for anyone."

She also confirmed Welch was given the opportunity to start a new ballot and declined. She also stressed that if Welch or any voter prefers a paper ballot it can be arranged.

"Anyone can request a paper ballot by mail," she said. "Some people are still just more comfortable with the paper ballot and we want to give them the option of still participating in elections."

Welch said the situation is typical of the problems he expected with the move away from paper ballots to touch-pad machines.

"This was my first time to vote with the electronic machines and I was already wary of them," he said.

"I've done my reading and I know they can be manipulated and hacked into by people. There hasn't been any- thing that can't be modified. To paraphrase (former Soviet Leader Joseph) Stalin, 'I don't care who runs in an election, the important person is the one who counts the votes.' If all our votes are being registered as 'ones and zeroes' by a machine, the results of the election are based on who is doing the programming."

He added since the equipment doesn't produce what he thinks is a proper paper trail, there is no way to verify election results.

Owens said while voters don't receive a paper receipt at the polling place she said there is a verifiable paper trail created by the voting equipment. She added there is no state or federal regulation requiring a receipt be created and the equipment is not designed to create one.

"But a paper trail is there," Owens said.

"The voting information is stored on a flash card and the compiling computer can generate results for a manual count, which is necessary if we have to hand count the ballots. It prints the voting results out in a random order to protect the privacy of the voter. That way, you cannot use the signature sheets to determine how any individual voted."

In discussing the security of the system, Owens said there is a 27-step preparation process each machine goes through before it can be used in an election. Included is two test decks of sample votes used to confirm accuracy.

"The vendor sends us a hard, paper copy of sample voting that we record electronically and then compare to the original," she said.

"The state also requires a test deck be run and we generate the samples locally and again compare them to the hard copy. That test is done right before the election and if both segments are accurate, I don't see any way someone can get in an manipulate the machines."

Welch said he has scheduled an appointment with Precinct 1 Commissioner Mickey Reynolds this week to discuss the possibility of going back to paper ballots in Wharton County. He said if the county commissioners court could vote to approve using the machines, then they could vote to discontinue their use.

The voting machines were adopted after the passage of the Help Americans Vote Act, which Owens said was adopted to guarantee everyone the right to privacy in casting their ballots.

"HAVA requires some type of electronic machine to assist people with disabilities to vote without assistance," she said.

"For example, if a person is blind the machines can offer Braille or they can listen to a voice recording on the machine. Since we had to get the machines, most counties made the decision to make them available to everyone."

Welch maintained the federal mandate is just another way for Washington D.C. to deny citizens and states rights guaranteed under the Constitution.

"It's just another method for the centralization of authority and power," he said.

"As states' rights are diminished, the central government's power grows. If people allow recording ones and zeroes with no way to verify them to decide who their elected leaders will be don't deserve the liberty they've inherited. And those public officials who support it should be run out of town on a rail."