Election Complaint Under Investigation
The Hillsboro Reporter; January 8, 2007

Affidavits alleging criminal conduct in Hill County’s November general election has apparently initiated an investigation.

In records obtained through the district clerk’s office, identical affidavits signed by G.W. Bodovsky and Henry Duckett were filed with District Attorney Dan V. Dent’s office last month.

Both the district attorney and District Judge F.B. (Bob) McGregor Jr. recused themselves in the case.

Dent cited the fact that he was a Democratic multi-term office-holder and felt that the attorney to review the complaint should not be a public officeholder with a party affiliation as his reasons for seeking recusal.

Although he was unopposed, Judge McGregor’s name appeared on the ballot, which could present a conflict.

Senior District Judge James F. Clawson Jr. of Temple was appointed to preside over any legal proceedings that might stem from an investigation, and Kerri Donica of Corsicana has been named district attorney pro tem to investigate the affidavits’ allegations.

Vote fraud and voter disenfranchisement are alleged, “perpetuated by, but not limited to, Elections Systems and Software (ES&S) in their use of secret, uncertified software code” on the electronic-voting machines purchased from the company and used by the county during the election.

It alleges that every 10th vote cast on a machine for a Democratic candidate was flipped to the Republican candidate in that race by the software.

Bodovsky said Tuesday afternoon, January 2, that the allegation was based on a pattern he detected while monitoring the recount in the county judge, treasurer and two commissioner races.

The affidavit alleges that if the 10-vote flip is proven true, Republican candidates could have gained a 20-percent advantage on machine-cast votes.

Bodovsky said that review of election returns showed the Democrats winning most precincts where paper ballots were concerned, but the trend was reversed on the machine ballots.

The affidavit also questions the lack of paper ballots ordered by elections administration officials, which forced some voters to cast ballots on the machines.

It alleges that some precincts were running out of paper ballots as early as 9 a.m. on election day.

While the affidavit admits it’s not a crime to fail to order enough paper ballots, “it was the intent of ES&S to have as many voters as possible use the machines to perpetuate their vote flipping with the maximum results being attained.”

The final section of the affidavit alleges logs from the computer running the Unity System Elections Reporting Manager, which were obtained under the Texas Open Records Act, were illegally altered.

Ms. Donica was reportedly scheduled to be in the county this week to begin looking into the allegations.

In the mean time, declared winners in the November election were sworn into office Tuesday morning.