Fort Bend County Commissioners Court will conduct a workshop to view four new voting systems certified for use in the State of Texas; will the Commissioners ask for confirmation the machines can produce paper backup records?
According to Item 34 posted on the agenda for the Tuesday August 13, 2019 court meeting the commissioners will discuss these systems:
Fort Bend County Commissioners and constituents attending the workshop should ask:
1. Which voting systems produce the statutorily required ballot images required for manual recounts, including storage and printing?
2. Please confirm which systems support the statutorily required ballot images contain the legal components of an official Texas ballot, such as the election name and date, each candidate’s name, voting squares, and a unique serial number as defined by the Texas Constitution?
3. Please confirm each voting system comports with Texas Election Code statutes 66.023 supporting the printing of Early Voting tapes that report the precinct returns for that location.
Surely no one wants the Texas Secretary of State in a position to ever issue waivers for counties that do not print backup/ results tapes for Early Voting and Election Day, nor does anyone want the Secretary of State to ever issue waivers to all 254 Texas counties NOT to audit paper ballot results.
A County Examiner source revealed that adjacent Harris County, Texas is strongly considering the acquisition of new voting equipment that can produce paper backup records, and we hope Fort Bend does the same.
Updated: Dr. Laura Pressley responds:
Even with a paper ballot backup, voters and candidates must remain vigilant, step up to perform checks on voting results, be central counting station watchers, and hold election administrators accountable to all Texas election laws.
We must ensure the new systems strictly adhere to all Texas’ paper trail laws:
- Counties must provide for mandated consecutively numbered paper ballots to voters to prevent vote duplication or removal (Texas Election Code 52.062),
- Secretary of State, Election Administrators and Central Counting Station Watchers must ensure audit logs of central counting computers record all electronic entries (Texas Administrative Code 81.62(b)).
election lawsuits when discrepancies and illegalities are discovered.
Dr. Laura Pressley is the Founder of True Texas Elections, LLC and is an advocate for legal, honest, and transparent elections in Texas and across the country. Donate to the effort here.
