Bowie County committee picks e-voting vendor
Saturday, April 23, 2005 1:15 PM CDT

By GREG BISCHOF
Texarkana Gazette

 

NEW BOSTON, Texas-After a full month of study, the Bowie County Voting Systems Committee voted Friday to one of four electronic voting systems vendors to supply the county with equipment before next year's elections.

The committee chose the Omaha, Neb.-based Election Systems & Software AutoMARK voter assisted terminal as the county's supplier. The committee will recommend AutoMARK to the Bowie County Commissioners Court during the court's meeting Monday.

 

By Jan. 1, 2006, all counties in Texas must have an electric voting system in place in order to comply with the Help America Vote Act of 2002.

Last month, the committee listened to separate presentations by AutoMARK and three other state certified vendors as each demonstrated their electronic voting equipment. The three others were Diebold and Hart Intercivic, based in Texas, and California-based AccuPoll.

 

All the presentations focused on technologically advanced systems. Voters with physical, visual and audio limitations will be able to cast their ballots unassisted.

 

Bowie County Elections Administrator Vallery Watson said all four seem to, more or less, present the same things.

 

Initially, the committee thought about narrowing the choice down to two vendors and have both come back to re-demonstrate their equipment.

However, during Friday's discussion, the committee agreed to choose AutoMARK mainly because the county is more familiar with the use of the vendor's paper ballot and scan-in method.

 

Committee member and Precinct 4 Commissioner Carl Teel said having a tangible paper ballot offers more reassurance and security than electronically recorded ballots.

 

Since Bowie County has 36 voting precincts, the county may be required to buy at least 36 of these computerized voting systems. The average cost of each one is about $5,500.

 

The federal government is expected to pay for the bulk of the expenses in grant money to assure quick implementation in each Texas county by Jan. 1, 2006.

 

During the meeting, Watson found out the Texas Secretary of State's Office has already designated Bowie County to receive $400,812 in federal grant funds to get the system implemented.

 

However, during last month's presentations, some committee members noted the electronic voting systems seemed so new and complicated that any voter attempting to use them would need assistance.

 

Bowie County Judge James Carlow said he doubted the new system would attract much use.

 

"I don't think these new systems will be used enough by anyone to amount to anything," he said.