Changing the system
May 21,2005
Victoria Hirschberg
The Monitor

EDINBURG ? Four companies showed off hi-tech machinery to voters and officials Friday in a multimillion-dollar competition to supply Hidalgo County with a new voting system.

A far cry from the county?s current voting system, which dates back to 1968, the vendors demonstrated touch-screen technology, encrypted voter cards and detachable printers ? some looking more like a video game than a way to cast a ballot.

The Texas secretary of state approved the four vendors ? Diebold Election Systems Inc., Hart Intercivic Inc., Unilect Corp. and Election Systems & Software Inc. ? to vie for Hidalgo County?s business. Each system is paperless, meaning votes are recorded electronically.

Diebold offers a customized touch-screen voting system. Each voter would receive an encrypted card, similar to a debit card, to into the machine. Unilect also uses a touch-screen for voters.

ES&S? systems give each voter a personal electronic ballot, which looks like a small plastic box, to activate the machine. Then a voter will use a touch screen.

Hart Intercivic is the only company that does not use touch screens. Instead, voters navigate the ballot with a small wheel.

The county Elections Commission will meet Monday to make a recommendation, and the Commissioners Court is expected to vote on the vendor at Tuesday?s meeting.

Manuela Anzaldua of Elsa has worked county elections since paper ballots existed.

"People will be intimidated, especially with senior citizens," Anzaldua said of the new system, often called direct recording electronic machines, or DREs. "They?ll see something like that and panic."

Anzaldua said she is not computer savvy, so she liked the ES&S machines ? there weren?t a lot of buttons.

County Judge Ramon Garcia also likes ES&S systems.

"It?s less complicated and it?s going to be quite a dramatic change," Garcia said.

Precinct 2 Commissioner Hector "Tito" Palacios, the only commissioner present at Friday?s demonstration, would not say which vendor he prefers, but he is worried about how voters will perceive the electronic system.

"My biggest concern is the older citizens and their trust of computers," Palacios said. "I?m going to look at the pros of all of them. We need to look at dollar amount."

The county must purchase 125 machines compliant with the Americans with Disabilities Act, and 350 regular stations. Some vendors have training fees and offer additional outreach and warranties, but prices per machine range from $1,000 to $3,000.

"They are not computers, not hooked up to a network of database," said Elections Administrator Teresa Navarro. "They are stand-alone systems. ? It?s like a calculator you have on your desk."

Navarro would not disclose which vendor she will recommend, saying she is considering all four. She said whichever vendor commissioners , there should be no cost to the county because the Texas Secretary of State in April gave the county $2.6 million to purchase an upgrade.

"Right now, we don?t have to come up with any funding," she said.

However, there could be additional costs.

Some county officials, like Garcia, are requesting that each machine have a "paper trail," so there is a record of who voted and which candidates that person voted for.

"I?m going to be insistent on a paper trail," Garcia said, adding that a traceable source reinforces the integrity of an election.

The four vendors offer attachable printers and parts that produce "paper trails," which resemble supermarket receipts. However, Texas does not require that feature.

If the county does insist on purchasing "paper trail" technology, Navarro said, it could cost more than $750,000. Also, the grant money cannot pay for that equipment because it currently is not state certified.

Only 12 states require a "paper trail."

"We do have an audit paper trail ? meaning that if we want to see what happens, how many times it?s been turned on, off, (the machine) could give us an audit train and we could print it out," Navarro said. "It?s not what they want. They want the voter to get some type of receipt."

Navarro hopes commissioners award the contract Tuesday so the county could have the machines ready, poll workers trained and voters educated before early voting begins in August for the constitutional amendment election.

Worst case scenario, she said, would be debuting the machines at the general election in March 2006.

All four companies said the timeframe is short, but promised to get the machines to Hidalgo County as quickly as possible.

"There?s a lot of things to consider," Navarro said.