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News

Making sure every vote counts

Official: New electronic voting machines among most secure available

by Chelsea Adams
The Daily Cougar

For some voting is a sacred act, a ritual done out of a sense of democratic duty, loyalty and hope for the future. Others may not take voting so seriously, doing so only when they're unhappy with the way things are going and want to bring about change.

Either way, everyone who makes the effort to vote wants to know his or her vote counts.

Now that electronic voting systems have all but replaced paper ballots in Texas, many are wondering how exactly their votes will be counted, especially when an election can be decided by a few thousand or even a few hundred votes.

Only a few Texas counties use the now controversial Diebold machines. The others use mostly ES&S machines, but many counties -- including Harris, Brazoria and Fort Bend -- use Hart Intercivic systems.

One of the reasons Harris County elections officials selected Hart from among the other leading manufacturers was because it is a closed system, meaning it is not attached to phone lines and is "probably one of the most hack-proof systems," Harris County Clerk Beverly Kaufman said.

"The fact that there are three areas of redundancy is also a plus because those votes are protected in three different places," Kaufman said.

At the polls, voters are issued a four-digit, randomly generated access code that is entered on the eSlate, which has a wheel and button for selecting and entering candidate choices.

Janice Evans, Brazoria County elections director, said voters should think of it like a washing machine.

"You turn the dial and push the button," she said.

When ballots are cast, they are stored in three physically separate areas of the eSlate System: the eSlate, the Judge's Booth Controller, and a flash memory card called a Mobile Ballot Box.

A cable transfers votes to the JBC and to a memory card inside the JBC.

After the polls close for the day, Evans said, the election judges for each location will know the results for their locations.

The judge will then run a tape and make three copies.

"They print a copy and put it in an envelope They print another copy and the judge gets to keep it," Evans said. "And then they print a copy and leave it on the machine."

Then officials box it all up and bring it in to election headquarters, where a crew checks everything, verifies if the seal numbers on the MBBs are the same, breaks the seals and takes them into the tabulation room, a secured area to which only a limited number of people have access, Evans said.

Once the tally is completed, it's sent via Internet to the secretary of state.

Complaints about electronic voting machines are received by the thousands via e-mail, letters and phone calls, according to Melinda Nickless, assistant director of elections for the secretary of state.

However, once the complaints have been responded to, they are "filed away," and no official total of complaints is kept.

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