Elections staff to begin training for voting system
August 22,2005
Agnes Jasinski
The Monitor

EDINBURG ? The "dinosaur-ish" Shoup voting machines have officially been put to rest in Hidalgo County, making way for touchscreen voting machines ready for use later this year.

Elections officials will begin training on the new machines Sept. 12. The public will be able to put the new machines to use during early voting starting Oct. 24. After that, the new voting system will be available for all early voting dates and elections, including school district, city council and county elections.

"The way we view it, if you can use an ATM card, it?s exactly like that," said Rene Solis, director of operations for the county?s elections department. "Three steps is all it is. These are much better."

Elections staff will also provide on-site training to the public after staff training, with locations expected at local Wal-Marts, H.E.B.?s and other shopping centers. The county received state grant money to provide these education substations, Solis said.

The equipment will speed up ballot counts and improve accuracy. Similar touchscreens have already been used in Laredo and in Bexar County, with no glitches reported, Solis said.

"People will be able to see the screens, touch them, learn how they work," Solis said. "We?ll try to set up where a lot of people will benefit."

Voters will use up and down buttons on the screens to cast their ballot, with directions in both Spanish and English. The screens will be placed in covered stands to protect privacy. Compared to the 1,000-pound Shoup machines, the 15 pound-touchscreens will also be portable to make curbside voting and assistance voting more accessible for the elderly and disabled.

Precinct 4 Commissioner Oscar Garza said the machines seemed easy to use at a recent workshop with elections staff.

The old machines will be put up for sale and auctioned, he said, for people who want a keepsake of the old voting system. The old machines could also be auctioned to historical societies or museums, or donated to school districts.

Solis said the elections staff is still waiting for approval to announce polling locations for October?s early voting, as well as for the county judge elections in November.

Elections staff may soon consider further adjustments to the county?s voting system to include printers that create a paper trail to record voters? ballots. For now, county officials seem eager to make the switch to the touchscreen voting system.

"It was a matter of time? we had to move on," Garza said. "I think people will catch on pretty quick."