More than a decade ago, Wood County purchased electronic voting machines and ended the use of paper ballots. WE FEEL THAT THIS WAS A MISTAKE. Electronic voting machines are programmed with ballot information before each election by employees of companies not controlled or understood by election officials. The final vote is stored in electronic memory, not on paper, and can easily be changed by miscreant programmers either before or after the election. It must be admitted that a recount when using electronic voting is meaningless, because there is no traceability from ballots to vote counts.
The best, and in fact the ONLY traceable voting method is HAND-MARKED PAPER BALLOTS (HMPB). These would be scanned by simple, non-connected electronic scanners, easily checked in randomly chosen precincts by hand counting. This is done in other counties in Texas, and used to be done in Wood County. Sometimes “progress" is not progress.
In 2021 the Texas State House passed a law that we had to have paper ballots by 2026 to close the corruption hole. Wood County purchased scanners and implemented paper ballots in the 2024 Constitutional Amendment election, and we used them. However, they are considering using electronic ballot markers. We oppose this because
-people don't check the machine marked ballot for accuracy, opening the
door to cheating
-ballots are not "serialized" meaning that the machines can be used to generate arbitrary numbers of ballots to any election
-bar codes on the ballot might contain the actual choices recorded on the
scanners, rather than the choices of the voter
-they're unnecessarily expensive, many machines required to keep the lines going
-they unnecessarily involve equipment vendors in the election, since they own the
software used to program the machines
-ballots are printed on expensive thermal paper, unstable in heat and light. Ballots
must be stored 22 months by law for recounts, and unknown whether thermal
paper ballots will make it
The best, and in fact the ONLY traceable voting method is HAND-MARKED PAPER BALLOTS (HMPB). These would be scanned by simple, non-connected electronic scanners, easily checked in randomly chosen precincts by hand counting. This is done in other counties in Texas, and used to be done in Wood County. Sometimes “progress" is not progress.
In 2021 the Texas State House passed a law that we had to have paper ballots by 2026 to close the corruption hole. Wood County purchased scanners and implemented paper ballots in the 2024 Constitutional Amendment election, and we used them. However, they are considering using electronic ballot markers. We oppose this because
-people don't check the machine marked ballot for accuracy, opening the
door to cheating
-ballots are not "serialized" meaning that the machines can be used to generate arbitrary numbers of ballots to any election
-bar codes on the ballot might contain the actual choices recorded on the
scanners, rather than the choices of the voter
-they're unnecessarily expensive, many machines required to keep the lines going
-they unnecessarily involve equipment vendors in the election, since they own the
software used to program the machines
-ballots are printed on expensive thermal paper, unstable in heat and light. Ballots
must be stored 22 months by law for recounts, and unknown whether thermal
paper ballots will make it