Electronic Voting Systems Might Not Be Enough in Texas
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An Austin City Council runoff election may have revealed voting machine tabulation problems.
A Texas county may build its own voting system now that a growing national push for legally verifiable electronic election records has reached its polling places.
Former Austin City Council candidate Laura Pressley announced this week she’ll appeal a district court decision dismissing her December runoff lawsuit against Councilman Greg Casar, arguing Travis County’s current electronic voting system may violate state election law.
When Pressley’s attorney requested statutorily required images of cast ballots from the county’s Hart Intercivic eSlate voting machines for a manual recount, the clerk could only provide computer-tabulated cast vote records.
“Texans demand transparency in the democratic process, and we must be able to inspect and verify the official records in an election,” Pressley said in her announcement. “This case is about ensuring our voting process is accurate, secure and reflects each voter’s intent.”
Pressley’s is the first case in Texas history arguing election tabulation errors, where official ballot images weren’t retained to validate electronic voting results, though similar cases have cropped up in Florida, Ohio and Pennsylvania. A total of 26 states back up electronic voting systems with verifiable paper records.
The suit claims a number of irregularities: more ballots than names reported during early voting, systematic corruption errors when batches of votes were electronically counted and election officers being told not to retain backup tapes of electronic vote counts.
But the district court judge ruled there wasn’t enough evidence to challenge the election’s outcome—Casar winning handily by 1,291 votes and Pressley’s argument disputing the voting system more than the result.
While Pressley’s lawyer sought access to eSlate software, manuals and witnesses, the judge put an end to discovery with Casar’s legal team calling it a “fish and hunt” expedition, The Austin Chronicle reported. The county clerk’s office alone spent $40,000 on the suit.
Casar’s team also argued cast vote records are in keeping with the Texas Election Code.
Pressley "disagrees with 10 Texas Secretaries of State, the United States Election Standards Commission, and 100 jurisdictions in Texas,” attorney Charles Herring told The Austin Chronicle.
Still the judge made an accelerated appeal with Texas’ Third Court of Appeals possible, and the county wants to build a new voting system rather than buy one, The Austin Monitor reported.
“If we were to go out and buy a brand new voting system right now . . . the price tag is $14 million,” County Clerk Dana DeBeauvoir told the publication.
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