County not sold on voting receipts
By Michael Wright
The Facts   

Published August 19, 2005
ANGLETON ? Brazoria County officials saw a demonstration Thursday of electronic voting machines that leave a paper trail, but they aren?t sold on the idea.

The machines, made by California-based AccuPoll, would print out the voters? list of choices. Once the voter verifies the names are correct, he or she would put the letter-sized paper in a locked box.

Federal law requires local governments to have electronic voting machines in place by Jan. 1 to qualify for federal assistance in paying for the new machines.

County commissioners agreed in July to enter negotiations with Hart InterCivic for electronic machines that don?t leave a paper trail.

That means a recount would be meaningless because it would just recycle the same data, officials have said.

?I know we need something with a paper trail,? Pct. 1 Commissioner Donald ?Dude? Payne said.

But he said the AccuPoll machines might not be the answer because they have only provisional certification from the state. They aren?t certified for mail voting either, said Brazoria County Clerk Joyce Hudman, who is in charge of elections in the county.

Further complicating matters is that state law does not allow paper ballots from an electronic machine to be used in a recount, Hudman said.

Tim Nelson, a company representative, demonstrated the machines in the commissioners courtroom at the county courthouse. The paper ballots could still be used to verify results and let officials know whether they have a problem, he said.

That could lead to a Pandora?s box if the paper ballots show one result and the electronic results another.

Chet Noblett, an AccuPoll vice president, said that doesn?t concern him because federal law requires a paper trail and believes any federal judge would rule in favor of the paper trail. Noblett said AccuPoll would be happy to pay any legal fees involved.

Concerns about the security of an electronic system are unfounded and no one needs to worry about AccuPoll or any other company rigging the results, Noblett said.

?I?m not going to go to jail for anybody,? he said.

Noblett said the AccuPoll machines cost about $3,000 each, which puts the county?s cost at $1.8 million for the 600 machines it needs. That?s cheaper than the $2 million officials expect the Hart machines to cost, but Hudman said the machines required attachments, such as laptops and software to allow mail votes, and that would add to the cost.

Another issue that scares Hudman is the machines haven?t been used by any county in the country yet.

But the system does have proponents.

?The system they are looking at now, the Hart system, does not have a paper trail,? said Ralph Collins, a Democratic activist from Freeport. ?Why not start with the paper trail??

Payne is hoping legislation in Congress will push the deadline back to at least October 2006 to give the county more time.

?I?m hoping we can hold off and not have something in place by March,? he said.