Boling man questions ballots after vote machine snafu
By BARRY HALVORSON news@leader-news.com

A problem with an electronic voting machine at the Boling Fire Station prompted one local resident to not participate in Tuesday's Texas Amendment election.

While trying to complete his ballot, Boling resident Jim Welch said that when he was voting on Amendment 11, the machine failed to record his vote and instead changed his vote on Amendment 8.

"I tried it several times (to vote) and then showed the problem to one of the election judges," Welch said. "They gave me the option of starting with a new ballot on a different machine, but I said that I didn't want to vote if it was that easy to change things."

Wharton County Elections Administrator Judy Owens confirmed Welch's problem, saying she apologized for the problem. She added the situation was corrected without compromising the election.

"We went back and recalibrated the machine," she said. "Occasionally if someone press, press, presses a particular button it can cause problems. We had someone go out and fix things. Until then, we took that particular machine out of service."

She also confirmed Welch was given the opportunity to start a new ballot and declined. She also stressed that if Welch or any voter prefers a paper ballot it can be arranged.

"Anyone can request a paper ballot by mail," she said.

Welch said the situation is typical.

"This was my first time to vote with the electronic machines and I was already wary of them," he said.

"I've done my reading and I know they can be manipulated and hacked into by people. There hasn't been anything that can't be modified."

He added since the equipment doesn't produce what he thinks is a proper paper trail, there is no way to verify election results.

Owens said while voters don't receive a paper receipt at the polling place she said there is a verifiable paper trail created by the voting equipment.

"The voting information is stored on a flash card and the compiling computer can generate results for a manual count, which is necessary if we have to hand count the ballots."

In discussing the security of the system, Owens said there is a 27-step preparation process each machine goes through before it can be used in an election. Included is two test decks of sample votes used to confirm accuracy.

Welch said he has scheduled an appointment with Precinct 1 Commissioner Mickey Reynolds this week to discuss the possibility of going back to paper ballots in Wharton County. He said if the county commissioners court could vote to approve using the machines, then they could vote to discontinue their use.

The voting machines were adopted after the passage of the Help Americans Vote Act, which Owens said was adopted to guarantee everyone the right to privacy in casting their ballots.