Voter machines in Texas Question

[liveoaktx]

Went out and early voted this afternoon. Our county has ES&S machines and it's my understanding that they have the capability of printing out a paper receipt. But they don't and I have wondered if it was a local county matter that they didn't want to spend the money. I asked today while I was there and the woman running the vote said that it was a state matter about whether or not paper receipts would be printed. Another lady came out and said it was all part of the federal law.

My question is this, because it seems to me that paper receipts would be, at most, a money issue, ie, who pays for the paper? Doesn't the local county pay for the machines and how they will be used (operating costs and such) and wouldn't it actually be something that the local county would vote on, ie, printing the paper receipt? If not, who makes that decision NOT to print?

[acmejack]

1. I will ask our Travis county clerk

She is acknowledged to be among the best voting law experts in Texas. I will make sure you get the reply.

[crispini]

2. I think it's going to vary county by county.

It's not so much the paper as it is the cost of the printer, I think that's part of it. Each county's budget for machines and so on is determined by the County Commissioner's court. The elections office in the county makes their budget and their decisions and the County Commissioners' court approves it, that's my understanding.

[Czolgosz]

3. I once discussed voting machines with Sonia and all I was smart enough to

learn was that she knows more about voting machines than I'll ever know. You may want to call this issue to her attention.

[Smarty Pants Liberal]

4. At present it's a State matter

The Secretary of State has not certified the printers.

[liveoaktx]

5. What would have to happen to certify the printer?

[Smarty Pants Liberal]

6. For starters - make sure a Democrat is elected Governor

because they appoint the Secretary of State

[sonias]

7. It's a complicated issue liveoaktx

The counties pay for the election equipment so the paper and printers would be the responsibility of the counties. Here in Travis, most of the city is Travis, so for elections inside the county, the City of Austin pays the county to conduct the elections. Therefore the city pays for that upgrade indirectly. It's not a trivial matter either. Retrofitting our system in Travis is estimated to cost us $1 million. Help America Vote Act (HAVA) was never fully funded by Congress, so the counties really have to come up with some of the money themselves. But if you were smart and waited until this year to buy your e-voting system, at least you could buy a complete system and use HAVA monies to pay for it all, or at least the maximum amount the state will cough up of the federal monies.

But the first part of complication is the vendor certification process at the SOS. Voter Verified Paper Audit Trail (VVPAT) systems need to be approved by the Secretary of State. Right now there is only one system that has passed that certification process - AccuPoll DRE v. 2.5.

Delta and Erath counties have chosen AccuPoll with VVPAT and they are currently using it for this primary election.

Here's the link
http://www.equitygroups.com/otcbb/acup/messages/32568.html">news article
November 10, 2005
ACUP News Texas Counties Conduct Statewide Election with AccuPoll; Delta and Erath Counties First Counties in Texas to Use AccuPoll Voting System with Voter Verified Paper Audit Trail

Here is the new SOS propaganda site touting e-voting as fast, secure and safe. So much so in fact, that there will be a cease and desist lawsuit filed against Roger Williams and the SOS for this fraudulent commercial. Lawsuit to be filed within the next couple of weeks.

We're stuck in Travis with Hart Intercivic eSlate with no VVPAT, because it has not been able to pass certification in Texas. Royally screwed. Too many of the larger counties jumped in too quickly and bought equipment that now needs to be retrofitted.

I commend the county registrars of Delta and Erath for waiting to get the right system. They did much, much better than Harris, Travis, El Paso and Dallas.

The VVPAT bill will be filed again next session by Aaron Pena and we're going to give it another shot. The fact that Mary Denny will not be in the Lege to block is very good news. I don't expect Craddick to appoint a VVPAT friendly Elections Committee chair though, so it's still going to be hard work.

We of course also want VVPB (voter verified paper ballot) where the ballot of record is the paper ballot and not the machine count.

Sonia

[Smarty Pants Liberal]

8. Well #$%^

Accupoll filed for bankruptcy. I was going to rave about how marvelous their machines were and post a link to their website but only found that their marvelous machines are no longer available for purchase.

[sonias]

9. WTF? Well that sucks.

I knew that they weren't selling the machines directly here in Texas. I think one of the other vendors was doing it for them. I didn't know they were in just bad straights. Well now what will Erath and Delta do? Will anyone be around to maintain them if the company folds. One of the other vendors may buy their licenses.

This a perfect reason why these systems should be running open source. Then lots of people could keep them going.

Sonia

[Smarty Pants Liberal]

10. Accupoll does run open source

Three members of the board of directors resigned in January. That's all I could find on the internet late last night.

Yes, the vendor was based in Dallas.

I'm no expert but I believe Erath and Delta will be able to use the machines. However, the machines won't be available for purchase again until someone else picks them up if they pick them up at all.

And Accupoll DOES run open source.

[sonias]

11. Well the open source is good for us however, the other vendors

won't buy into that. They've been whining so much about how they have to protect trade secrets. So they may just let it die. What a shame.

Sonia

[Pilgrim4Progress]

12. Who's Counting?

Beyond the paper trail, it's important to check on the auditing procedures that ensure integrity between what's entered in the voting machines and what's actually counted by the central tabulating machines.

I understand that one of the greatest potentials for manipulation is at the level of the central tabulators, called GEMS, I think.

If someone can hack into one of those and change the totals to put the election out of recounting range, even the paper trail would not help.

Here's a site from someone who's done a lot of research into the history and development of the voting machine companies. I've met the author and she gives a terrific presentation. Both her speaking and writing style can actually be fun to read - for an otherwise pretty dry topic.

http://www.whoscounting.net/

[Smarty Pants Liberal]

13. That's right, Pilgrim n/t