GEORGETOWN — Williamson County Commissioners Court members have approved spending more than $325,000 for voting equipment ahead of the Nov. 5 election amid heightened concern over voter integrity.
Commissioners unanimously approved an expenditure of $326,400 for election equipment from Election Systems and Software LLC at their Oct. 1 meeting.
During the session, commissioners made a point to discuss safeguards to prevent election misconduct. A recent report by The Heritage Foundation indicates actual cases of voter fraud and conviction are minimal in Texas.
Added assurances, however, were made by the commissioners as scenarios of election tampering have risen to a fever pitch, not just nationally but locally.
Residents signing up for the “citizens to be heard” portion of the meeting addressed commissioners to air their concerns on the matter.
“There’s been a lot of comments on what is and isn’t con- nected to the internet,” Precinct 2 Commissioner Cynthia Long said.
She asked Richard Simple of the county’s technology services department to explain.
“The ballot machines and the machines used to collect the ballots and read those as well as the tabulation machines have no connection to the internet whatsoever,” Simple said. “The tabulation computer, which is the central-count computer, doesn’t have the capability of doing wireless networking and wired networking is not connected. And there are no active network ports in that room for it to even connect to.”
However, the poll book — a registry of voters casting ballots — is connected to the internet, Simple noted. That internet link is made to prevent people from voting multiple times, he added.
“The poll books that are used to check folks in are connected to the internet for the sole purpose of when someone does check in, it’s recorded on the poll book itself and is also collected and sent out to the other poll books, so if you were to check in at one polling location, all other polling locations would get that update that you checked in and would not be able to check in at another location,” he said.
Some residents also have urged the use of paper ballots rather than electronic means over concerns elections could be manipulated via the internet. Long noted such paper balloting already exists given that a slip of paper that is churned out and delivered to another machine once ballots are cast.
“I would encourage everybody once that comes out to check it,” Long said. “I always look at mine to make sure it’s who I voted for. I’ve never had it not be who I voted for. And then that goes into a different device, but those paper ballots serve as the record should you decide you wanted to go back and ask for a recount.”
Purchase of election equipment that would have been viewed as routine in years past has taken on a specter of nefariousness amid growing distrust of the election process. Social media, with its widely distributed claims of malfeasance, has helped fuel suspicions. And Williamson County has not been immune.
County resident Laurie Gallagher has led the charge in raising concerns over election fraud, and has become a fixture at commissioners’ meetings in the process.
Calling for a “precinctbased, hand-marked, people-powered election” in favor of one involving electronic gadgetry, she aired her own suspicions of electoral fraud.
“Electronic election systems have overthrown our constitutional republican form of government and installed instead some sort of top-down government,” she said. “How are we having all levels of government corrupt? How are we having no remedy for fraudulent and defective voting products?”
She posited election machine makers as being in cahoots with “Facebook, Google, DHS (Department of Homeland Security) and several other agencies to protect the unconstitutional system that they have created.”
In years past, the purchase of elections equipment would not have prompted Precinct 3 Commissioner Valerie Covey to ask for the record: “So what you’re saying is, it’s not unconstitutional what we’re doing in Williamson County.”
The reply from her fellow commissioner Long: “I’m confident we’re abiding by the law on that.”
Early voting begins Oct. 21 and ends Nov. 1. The last day to apply for a ballot by mail is Oct. 25.
