Paper ballots will be used in June 7 runoff

06/01/2005   Guillermo Contreras    San Antonio Express-News

Next week's runoff election will go on as planned after a three-judge panel on Wednesday allowed the city to use paper ballots.

The Mexican American Legal Defense and Education Fund and the Austin-based Texas Civil Rights Project sued last week after the city changed from electronic voting machines to paper ballots for the June 7 runoff, which will decide the mayor's race and two City Council seats.

The groups asked the panel to force the city and Bexar County, which is administering the runoff election for the city, to add at least one electronic voting machine to the 238 polling sites so that all voters have a choice of either method. The groups say electronic voting, unlike paper ballots, accommodate even those who are visually impaired.

The panel, composed of U.S. District Judge W. Royal Furgeson, U.S. 5th Circuit Court of Appeals Judge Edward C. Prado and U.S. District Judge Earl Leroy Yeakel III, rejected the request for a temporary restraining order after county officials said the machines could not be in place and programmed by June 7.

Instead, the judges permitted election officials to use paper ballots and a telephone system that allows visually impaired voters to cast their ballots with some assistance.

?This would have never happened if the city had just stuck with the electronic (voting) machines,? said Furgeson, who is presiding over the case. ?I'm sure there are some complicated issues (that resulted in) that decision, but the fact is we're here.?

?I believe the use of the telephone system, although not perfect, is going to provide the accommodation? for now, Furgeson said in announcing the ruling.

The city used electronic machines for the May 7 election, but announced a week later that it would be using paper ballots for the runoff to save some $300,000.

Bexar County switched to electronic voting in 2003, but held on to the paper ballot technology to count mail-in and provisional ballots.

Some county commissioners publicly voiced their criticism after learning about the city's change, and County Judge Nelson Wolff called it was a step ?backward,? Assistant District Attorney Ed Schweninger, chief of the civil division, told the judges.

But Schweninger said the move was up to the city to decide which method to use. He added that it would be June 11 before electronic machines could be in place and programmed. If the election was moved to that date, the change would raise other issues such as re-working contracts for the polling sites and hiring pollworkers, city and county lawyers said.

The lawsuit claimed the change was improper because it wasn't pre-cleared but the Justice Department pre-cleared it on Tuesday. That left the issue of whether the change discriminated against those with disabilities.

?All of South Texas has paper ballots,? Acting City Attorney Martha Sepeda said after the ruling. ?Paper ballots are not that unusual.?

While the ruling addresses next week?s election, the lawsuit continues and may have future ramifications. MALDEF and the Texas Civil Rights Project said some comments Furgeson made during the hearing showed them that the days of paper ballots are numbered.

?I think the court acknowledged that the change to paper ballots discriminates against the visually impaired,? said MALDEF regional counsel Nina Perales.

Added Jim Harrington of the Texas Civil Rights Project: ?The writing is on the wall.?