An example of how expensive it gets when Texas forbids paper balots

[Melissa G]

Cross post from Election Reform
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=203x500121

This article is about the excessive cost of runoffs in small rural Texas counties who are NOT allowed to use Paper Ballots and Have to use expensive voting machines...

http://www.timesrecordnews.com/news/2008/apr/03/waste-money/#comments
Wichita Falls Online

Waste of money?
Low voter turnout has clerks questioning runoff efficiency
By Lara K. Richards
Thursday, April 3, 2008


What if you held an election, and nobody voted?
That's a reality small counties in North Texas are facing as they gear up for the April 8 runoff election.

The statewide runoff between Democrats Mark Thompson and Dale Henry for railroad commissioner means that all counties are required to hold a runoff election, regardless of whether they have a local runoff race or not.

Only Foard, Montague, Wilbarger and Wichita counties have local runoffs on their ballots.
As of Wednesday afternoon, just two people had cast ballots in early voting on the railroad commissioner race in Hardeman County, according to County/District Clerk Linda Walker.
"By the end of this early voting session, I'd be greatly surprised if we have five," she said. "I'll be ecstatic if we have five."

snip
"We expect a very low turnout. I'm sure single digits," she said.
Projected low voter participation has several county clerks questioning the efficiency of the runoff election, particularly the taxpayer dollars being spent.
Walker said she expected the runoff election to cost about $5,000 in her county.
"I think it's a big waste of money. In big cities, big counties, I can understand. But in smaller counties, you have to get your (voting machines) programmed, you have to get your ballots, you have to get everything set up," she said. "I think it's a great waste of money for the state of Texas."
Regardless of the turnout, Walker said she must go through the same steps as if it were a major election or had a local race.

[sonias]

1. What about voting for the disabled?

I agree that voting on paper ballots would be cheaper. I don't have a problem with banning DREs, but Texas is in a sort of limbo since they failed to take any kind of action whatsoever on verifiable voting. You can place that blame squarely on the Lege and the chair of the Elections Committee - Leo Berman.

If the state had replaced their paperless DRE voting systems with hand marked ballots and optical scan, these counties could have hand counted the few ballots they had, or set up their op scan machines.

HAVA is a federal law and Texas also amended their election code to also comply with the spirit of HAVA with respect to accessibility. Therefore the requirement for all Texas elections as well as federal elections, is that you have at least one accessible voting system per PCT. And right now the only thing Texas has is the DREs. The state did pass an exemption for very small voting districts last session, but I can't find the bill right off the top of my head. Hardeman County must not qualify for that exemption. I think it was less than 20,000 people in the jurisdiction or something like that.

Don't even think of offering "VotePad" as the answer for the disabled either. That system is a piece of crap. The disabled community hates it and the California SOS won't even certify it.

Instant runoff voting would also be the solution for this type of election. The SOS has ruled that we can't have it unless the Lege passes it. Austin tried to collect signatures to allow it for city elections. Don't hold your breath waiting for the Lege to pass it. It won't even deal with what are the most crucial fixes on elections like unsecured, unreliable and unwanted paperless DREs.

The EAC recently ruled that states that have unspent HAVA money could use that money to buy replacement systems. Prior to that ruling you were stuck with the mistake you made. If you bought crap with your HAVA money, well you had to use the crap. Now the EAC has ruled, you can throw away your crap and buy new stuff. I don't know how much unused HAVA money Texas has but it would be a start.

Unfortunately don't have a Governor that would be a leader in that effort to drop paperless electronic voting. Perry is a clueless moron. If the Feds don't mandate it, Texas will never do anything.

Sonia

[Melissa G]

2. I think those currently in control of Texas voting like things the way the are

so you are right, change is unlikely. I hope we can have meaningful change when we take back the Lege but as you well remember, the Lege was still pretty crazy even when we Dems had more control.

Leo Berman+ Elections committee = :grr:

Edit to say: I have not seen a good solution where disabled voters can have confidence their votes are secure. IMHO, those who instigated HAVA just used that population as a screen to steal votes and line special interest pockets.

[sonias]

3. Well whether the disabled community was used or not

They like voting with privacy and I for one am not rolling back anyone's right to vote. Whatever we do, we have to bring all our voters forward with us. I've worked with Advocacy Inc. and Coalition of Texans With Disabilities and I am not leaving any of these people behind.

I want you to meet Bryson McCall-Smith. He worked with our coalition in opposing voter ID. And he does support verifiable elections. This is just one person in our Texas community. I consider Bryson my friend, and I will not be leaving him anywhere behind me. When we move forward, we move forward together.

Watch this sort video that ACLU-TV made:
Freedom to Vote: Protecting the Ballot

Sonia

[Melissa G]

4. Thanks, I watched it, but I do not see where the video suggests a secure course of action.

Like you, I am interested in everyone's right to vote. I also want to be confident those votes are truly secure, as well as transparently and accurately counted.

I'm incredibly tired of smoke screen names, like 'Clear Skies Initiative' that pollutes our air and 'No Child Left Behind' that leaves masses of children indoctrinated with crappy educations. And I am most especially tired of 'Help America Vote Act' where we can expensively have little to no confidence that are votes are counted as cast in the 'illusion' of privacy where our votes can later be matched up with our names by those who have access to the records and control of the software.

edit clarity

[sonias]

5. The video was about our fight on voter ID

Not about verifiable voting. I was just giving you the background on the fact that the disabled community supports our goal of verifiable elections. And just to introduce you to one of our partners. We all help each other, because we're in this together. So hand counted paper ballots at the PCT level is not the answer. It will not serve the disabled community's right to privacy and we in the ACLU will not support it.

Sonia