The Texas Journalist - Election Special

No hanging chads for Austin

Security of electronic voting remains a concern for some Texans

By Donna Lin

Former First Lady Barbara Bush and husband former President George Bush voted early in Houston.

As Election Day approaches, Travis County voters are eager to get to the polls to make their voices heard. However, those who have not voted since the presidential election of 2000 can expect to find themselves in unfamiliar settings at the polls on Nov. 2.

Travis County has joined approximately 30 states and 675 counties across the country replacing the outdated punch card in 2000 with an electronic voting system. Thirteen Texas counties have electronic systems, including Harris, Travis, Bexar, Tarrant, Brazos and El Paso.

The Help America Vote Act, passed by Congress in 2002, requires elections nationwide to utilize electronic voting by January 2006. The act provides $3.9 billion in funding to counties to help purchase electronic systems.

HAVA was formed in part by the Florida voting debacle of 2000, where hundreds of punch-card butterfly ballots were discarded because the “chad,” the piece of paper punched out of the ballot, did not fully detach. Although this delayed the outcome of the presidential election with 36 days of recounts, disputes and court battles, George W. Bush was granted the victory by only 537 votes.

While Florida unveiled its new touch-screen system in the summer of 2002, Travis County has updated its voting system with touch-button equipment known as eSlate. The system was first conceived in 1998 by a county citizens’ advisory committee, but not implemented until 2002.
Though eSlate eliminates the human inaccuracies of paper ballots, computerized systems raise new concerns.

Gary Keith, a UT government professor, said even the newest computerized voting systems are not reliable, since they can be hacked into and modified.

“With electronic voting systems, we assume that because the voting results are on a computer, it’s got to be all right. The reality of this is that wherever computer systems are used in voting, there will be glitches, lawsuits and consequences,” he said.

These concerns are not unfounded, as some San Diego voters were turned away from the polls in March due to machine malfunctions in 200 precincts. The San Diego Union-Tribune reported in April that San Diego County then chose an optical-scan system allowing voters to first vote on paper, then scan their votes electronically.

News 8 Austin reported in May that concerned Travis County citizens were actively protesting the eSlate system, citing its unreliability as a security risk. These parties believe electronic systems can be hijacked, losing millions of votes.

Dana De Beauvoir, Travis County clerk, said that the touch-button system is the most accurate and reliable system the county has ever had.

“It’s a closed system. The system is battery backed-up, and has no modem, no wireless, no way to hack into the system and skew the outcomes,” she said.

De Beauvoir added eSlate has a number of built-in security functions, and that the county has implemented several precautions to ensure the system’s accuracy.

The voting system boasts “triple redundancy,” meaning voting information is stored three times electronically and on paper. As votes are entered, information is stored in the electronic hardware and printed on paper in a secure location.

De Beauvoir said when the polling machinery is taken apart at the end of the day, the two pieces of equipment with voting information are stored in different locations to eliminate the risk of lost or stolent information.

It is impossible for anyone to vote more than once under eSlate, De Beauvoir said. Voters first verify their eligibility to vote at the polls, then receive a randomly generated ballot serial number to open the ballot on the eSlate machine. Each serial number is unique and terminates after a specific time. The county also tests the system twice a day.

Not all Travis County residences are critics of the eSlate system. Aaron Shelby, a junior African and African American studies major at the University of Texas, said the electronic voting system is a positive step for the county to take.

“It shows that the county is at least trying to address the concerns citizens have about the unreliability of voting systems after Florida. No system is going to be perfect, but we at least want to make our voices heard,” Shelby said.

More Voting>>