County gets a look at hybrid voting machines

Hays County could consider purchasing voting equipment that provides a paper record of votes after a workshop on voting equipment held on Tuesday.

At the workshop meeting, the Hays County Commissioners Court heard presentations from two vendors — Hart Intercivic and ES&S — on their hybrid voting machines. The hybrids are electronic but provide a paper backup of a voter’s record that the voter can verify before casting a ballot.

Hays County Elections Administrator Jennifer Anderson thanked Precinct 1 Commissioner Debbie Gonzales Ingalsbe for bringing up the idea for the workshop.

“It’s a long time coming,” Anderson said.

In 2017, the county considered purchasing new voting machines, but systems that provided a paper trail were not in the running because the state would only allow DRE — direct recording electronic — machines to be used in the Countywide Voting Program, not hybrid machines. Hays County has applied for participation in that program, which would allow voters to cast their ballots at any polling place in the county on Election Day — much like early voting — instead of showing up at their particular precinct. The program received broad support from members of the community during a public hearing; however, voters have also expressed a desire for some kind of paper record of their votes.

An opinion from Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton has made the use of hybrid machines at countywide polling places possible. The summary of Paxton’s opinion states, “To participate in the countywide polling place program, a county must, among other requirements, use direct recording electronic voting machines. That a voting machine produces a marked paper ballot or includes multiple pieces of equipment that operate together to effectuate direct voting does not disqualify the machine from use in a countywide polling place program as long as the voting machines meet the other requirements of a direct recording electronic voting machine.”

“The legislature had several proposals to decertify DREs,” Anderson told the commissioners on Tuesday. “None of those passed. So that option is still open for the court. However, based on conversations we’ve had with voters and amongst ourselves over the past year and a half, I’ve asked both vendors to bring their systems with paper-backed voter verification, or hybrid systems.”

The commissioners made no decision on which machines to purchase at the workshop; the meeting was simply to hear presentations from the two vendors.