County voters to see changes

By Gene Deason ? Brownwood Bulletin   09 October 2005
  

Electronic voting machines should be available for use in Brown County next year, county election officials said Friday.

With a state and federally mandated first-of-the-year deadline looming, Brown County Commissioners will hear a presentation Tuesday from a representative of Hart InterCivic, the vendor which has been working with the county in previous years.

Brown County voters currently mark ballots with a pencil, and then they are electronically scanned and tabulated. The new voting process will involve sitting at a booth with three sides, in front of an electronic box on which a ballot will appear on a computer screen. One device the county is considering measures about 16 by 11 by 3 inches, and it is part of a portable voting booth unit that collapses into an easily storable 25 by 26 by 6-inch package.

?It won?t happen overnight, and it may actually take a year,? newly appointed Brown County election administrator George Bradley said. ?We will be working very closely with the county clerk during the transition.?

Bradley and Deputy Administrator Suzy Young started work on Oct. 1.

While it is possible the machines will be ready for use in the March 2006 party primaries, both Bradley and County Clerk Margaret Wood believe that timetable is overly optimistic. It appears more likely they will introduced to voters in time for the local elections in May 2006. They certainly are expected to be used in the November 2006 general election, when Texas voters will be choosing a governor, U.S. senator and Congressman among many other offices at the state, district and county levels.

?The commissioners court is looking at various systems,? Bradley said. ?That?s the commissioners? decision to make.?

After a vendor has been chosen, the choice of equipment must be certified by the Texas secretary of state and the U.S. Department of Justice. Under the Helping Americans Voters Act, the equipment must be on hand or under contract for purchase or lease by Jan. 1.

Every one of Brown County?s 18 voting precincts will have a number of voting machines, but the exact quantity will depend on how much money is available from the state and how many machines are required to satisfy election requirements.

The elections administrator?s office was created to handle election duties, and responsibilities for registering voters and conducting elections were plucked from the county tax-assessor?s office and county clerk?s office, respectively.

A growing number of registered voters in the county ? almost 24,000, Wood said ? and stricter election requirements made the creation of the elections administrator?s office necessary.

?I don?t want people to think my office is just taking over,? Bradley said. ?(Margaret Wood) has done this for a few years, and we?ve worked together before.?

Before the machines are placed before voters, the county election administrator?s office has an educational campaign planned.

?We?re hoping to be able to get two demonstration machines, so we?ll be able to take them to groups and civic clubs so they can see it and feel it before the elections,? Bradley said. ?That way, people won?t find it so scary.?

However, he said the learning curve is expected to be small.

?I think the people themselves are going to enjoy working with it,? Bradley said. ?Most of us are already working with computer equipment similar to this.?

Wood said two federal grants are available to help counties comply with the elections requirements. One will provide $54,000 to put at least one device designed for voters with a handicap.

And $7,000 is available to assist in training election workers on their use. Election workers will be carefully schooled in how to show them how to help voters learn what to do to cast their ballots without influencing them on how to vote, Bradley explained.

They said they hope the use of the voting machines will encourage younger citizens not only to vote more regularly, but to step forward to be election judges or workers. Using Spanish students from high schools and Howard Payne University as interpreters is also being considered.

?We?re all learning at the same time,? Wood said. ?It would be an exciting time to get involved.?

Because the ballot storage features triple redundancy in the systems, the integrity of the vote is protected. And if all else fails, ballots can even be printed on paper from the machines.

?This is not going to cost the county money,? Wood said, and it could even save money in the long-term. Currently, the scannable ballots being used cost 25 cents each and must be printed by an outside vendor. With the machines, ballots can be produced by the county elections office.

?It will be easier for the voter to come in and to go through the process,? Bradley said.

Because the process is interactive, voters will know immediately if they have made an error, such as marking a ballot for more than the allowed number of candidates in a particular race.

?The voter knows right then and there if it?s a valid ballot,? Bradley said. ?The voters will know without a doubt they have submitted a valid ballot and that their votes will make a difference.?

Wood said the machines will be able to handle multiple elections, such as times when a municipality, school district and water board all hold elections on the same day and at the same voting locations.

The next election is just a month away on Nov. 8 when proposals for amendments to the Texas Constitution will go before voters. Tuesday is the deadline to be registered to vote for participation.

Bradley said the voting machines will be a major part of his new job in coming months, but that throughout it all his office will be active in encouraging citizens to vote.

?The right to vote is so fundamental,? he said. ?If I don?t do it, it won?t get done. Nobody can vote for me. We want to get people involved in the voting process. We don?t have to do that so much for the state and national elections, but the local elections are so important. We will try to increase voter awareness and voter turnout.?