TX: Small communities can't afford required voting technology

By Joe Conger / KENS 5 Eyewitness News / May 13, 2006
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Lots of important issues are facing voters this Saturday, from school district elections to fire coverage for county residents. However, Saturday is also the first time taxpayers will shell out double, triple, even quadruple the cost to have an election. The right to vote is one of America's most cherished freedoms. When a person reaches the age of 18 years, he or she can participate. Texas state law now requires polling sites to have a IVotronic machine, making it easier for the disabled to participate in elections.

"They must have one of these (machines) available at every poll site," Bexar County Elections Administrator Jacquelyn Callanen said. However, the I-Team found that the machine costs $2,500, plus an additional $15,000 in software licensing, Some Texas communities say the costs are unaffordable and unnecessary. Bob Kafka is excited to know his disability won't be holding him back from voting at the polls.

"It's an issue of independence and control. We have so many people who are promised to be equal participation in the community, and voting is one of those basic rights that we care so much about," he said. In the past, disabled voters who were unable to vote on their own would typically have a family member fill out a mail-in ballot at home during early voting. Now, they have a choice. The 2000 presidential election exposed many flaws in the election systems, and as a result, the Help America Vote Act, or HAVA, was signed into law. The law gives everyone the ability to cast a ballot in secret by privately using a relatively new technology.

Texas took the law and ran with it. State lawmakers mandated last year that not only federal elections, but every single election — right down to the local level — will comply with HAVA. Texas counties received millions of dollars in federal grant money to purchase and operate these electronic voting machines, but the school districts and small towns who also have their own elections didn't receive anything. So how are the smaller areas going to comply? Some of the communities say lawmakers didn't think this one through.

"I don't think the Legislature was wrong in doing what they did. I think they were visionary, frankly," Texas Secretary of State Roger Williams said. However, small towns and schools are left trying to envision where they will get the money. Their dilemma: Buy tens of thousands of dollars in electronic machines and software, or rent the equipment and people from Bexar County. For Saturday's elections, 28 government agencies decided to rent.

"As we say, our little 'instant election in a box' — $3,811.23," Callanen said.

The cost of renting has caused local election costs to skyrocket.

"The programming of this electronic equipment is approximately $1,500. That was our budget prior to this," Helotes City Secretary Theresa Helbert said.

In Helotes, this year's election budget was bumped from $2,000 to $6,000.

In Fair Oaks Ranch, the 2005 budget of $1,145 was increased to $4,812 for 2006.

In Balcones Heights, last year's budget was $900. This year, it increased to $4,000.

And in Shavano Park, the budget increased from $420 in 2005 to $4,000 for 2006.

But if they have the talking machines, will the disabled show up to use them? That's the $4,000 question.

"The expense is a great expense for something we would never use, a machine that we would normally never use," Helbert said.

The I-Team found that in some small towns, where only dozens of folks vote in each election, city clerks have decided to ignore the new law. The Texas Municipal League confirms that at least half a dozen communities can't afford the machines, or believe there are no disabled folks in town to use them.

"If they say that, they're not meeting the requirement of the law, but I don't believe we'll have that. That's not the Texas spirit," Williams said.

The Secretary of State's Office says it isn't aware of that problem, but why would it be? None of the municipalities ignoring the law would talk with the I-Team on the record, for fear of potential lawsuits from disabled rights groups.

However, even Bexar County officials admit there's not a long line at the HAVA-required machines. Of the county's 900,000 registered voters, the I-Team found only seven disabled citizens reportedly used the machines in the last election.

But activists say the small numbers aren't the issue.

"We want to be able to do the most basic thing in our country — vote by ourselves," Kafka said.