Move to electronic voting places financial burden on Ector County

By Cliff Hamilton
Odessa American

Ector County officials say it could take more than a half a million dollars to comply with a federal order to replace its punch-card voting machines.
Elections Administrator Sharon Wilson said revamping the county’s voting system could cost as much as $750,000, enough that it could require a bond issue.
“This is based on bids that I’ve seen to other counties,” she said. “According to the number of machines we need, we’re guessing between $650,000 and $750,000.”
The move is ordered by the Help America Vote Act, which Congress passed in 2002. It requires voting precincts across the country to replace punch-card systems, like the one Ector County uses, with Direct Recording Electronic voting machines, or DREs, by Jan. 1, 2006.
“There’s a lot of counties that are not on the punch-card system, that only have to put in one DRE per precinct,” Wilson said. “But we’re punch card, and that’s been outlawed so we have to replace our whole system.”
There’s just one catch: Ector County has to raise the funds for the new machines itself.
County Judge Jerry Caddel said the county is in no financial position to replace all its voting machines, and the change would probably require a bond.
“A purchase of this size is going to obviously require us to issue debt under this mandate,” Caddel said. “I just don’t see how we can (replace the old machines) under our current allocations. The price tag’s just too high.”
At a recent commissioners meeting, the court approved a reimbursement agreement with the state that helps defray the cost of the new machines.
Under HAVA, precincts that still use punch-card machines are eligible for $3,192.22 of state funds to buy new machines, giving Ector County $134,073.42 for its 42 precincts.
Wilson said that equates roughly to one DRE for each precinct.
But one machine per precinct isn’t exactly ideal, Wilson said.
“One year we had over 17,000 people voting in this one room for early voting,” she said. “People would be lined up from now to Christmas.”
Wilson said the county currently uses 350 punch-card machines, but she is only asking for 150 DREs — the bare minimum needed to run an election. “There’s just no way we could replace 350 of these punch card machines right now,” she said. “If we get 150, it’ll be a very tight squeeze.”
To offset the cost, Wilson has asked the other local governing bodies that use the county’s voting machines — the City of Odessa, Ector County Hospital District, Ector County Independent School District and Odessa College — to chip in.
“I asked them for $25,000 a piece, and more if they want,” she said.
Wilson said she wasn’t sure how much support the other entities would give.
“I attended a (Council of Governments) meeting, and the city gave me the impression that it wouldn’t be a problem. The hospital board secretary called me and told me it would be on their next agenda,” Wilson said. “I haven’t heard from ECISD or OC.”
Even if all the entities contribute, the county is still left with a bill for several hundred thousand dollars.
Caddel described HAVA as “just one more of those mandates that the local taxpayer has to pick up the cost of.”
Wilson said the final cost to the county would depend on which machines she picks.
She said two DREs are certified for use in Texas: those manufactured by Austin-based Hart InterCivics or Omaha, Neb.-based Election Systems & Software Inc.
“We’re trying to decide which is the best system so we can avoid problems we have seen in other states,” Caddel said.
Electronic ballot machines have been the source of national controversy, with critics fearing that the machines are too easily tampered with or may somehow malfunction.
Texan voting-rights activists gathered Tuesday at the state Capitol, as part of a nationwide “The Computer Ate My Vote” day.
Dan Wallach, a computer scientist at Rice University in Houston, was one of the protestors.
“We know computers go wrong in a wide variety of ways,” Wallach said. “You don’t have to stretch too far to imagine that, my God, election fraud might happen. There might be people out there willing to invest time, money and resources to corrupting an election.”
Secretary of State Geoff Connor said he is confident the machines are reliable and noted that Texas voting machines must print audit logs and provide voters with a summary screen.
“Texas’ voting system certification and testing are among the most stringent in the nation,” Connor said.
According to the agreement between the state and Ector County, the DREs must allow voters to double-check their ballots and make changes if necessary and must produce a permanent paper record that allows a manual recount.
Wilson said both Hart Intercivics and ES&S’ machines do so.
“There has to be some kind of trail, and both of these systems have, as I understand, some kind of audit trail,” she said.
Wilson said the machines are also not susceptible to outside computer hackers.
“Those are like a dumb terminal in a way, because it only connects to what I have here. It will be our server, our stuff right here,” she said. “It’s not like you can get on a modem and get on them. It’s not like someone can break into them, because they can’t.”
Wilson said while the immediate cost is high, moving to electronic voting machines could save the county money in the long run by eliminating the cost of printing paper ballots.
She said her office has spent almost $18,000 on printing for this year’s elections.
“It won’t be that every year of course,” she said.
But Wilson said she’s not convinced that the transition from punch-card machines, which the county has used throughout her 17 years in office, to DREs will be an easy one.
“I don’t expect it to be like a smooth, wonderful happening,” Wilson said. “We will do our best to make it happen.”