Texas: Harris County to spend $54 million on new voting machines, this time with paper backup | Zach Despart/Houston Chronicle

Harris County Commissioners Court on Tuesday approved spending $54 million on a fleet of new voting machines, choosing a model that produces a paper backup. The court unanimously selected the Hart InterCivic Verity machine to replace the e-Slate devices in use since 2002, which were also manufactured by the Austin election software company. “This has been thoroughly vetted. I’m very confident in the machines we’re selecting, in that they have everything that we’ve asked for,” said Elections Administrator Isabel Longoria. “They have triple data backups for election integrity and everything we need to keep elections safe.” The Verity model has a digital touch screen and more accessibility options for seniors and residents with disabilities. Longoria said her staff will determine whether debuting the 12,000 new machines is feasible for the May elections. For last year’s November general election, Harris County was the largest jurisdiction in the country to use a voting system that did not produce a paper backup, raising security concerns because elections could not be audited. “I’m so glad we’re getting paper ballots,” County Judge Lina Hidalgo said after voting to approve the new machines. “What a relief.”

Full Article: Harris County to spend $54 million on new voting machines, this time with paper backup

Idaho: Canyon County working to determine how many voters affected by Hart InterCivic voting machine errors | Rachel Spacek/Idaho Press

The Middleton School District’s supplement levy request fell short Tuesday, while three other school districts in Canyon County successfully passed levies. Some Middleton district voters, however, contacted the school district Tuesday morning to say they weren’t given a chance to vote on the levy because of issues with the county’s new election equipment. The issue was resolved early in the day, school district spokeswoman Vickie Holbrook told the Idaho Press Wednesday. “I think there were a few (affected voters), but do I think it affected the outcome? No,” she said. Nampa voters also experienced issues with the equipment, and some were told to come back later in the day to vote. County Clerk Chris Yamamoto said Wednesday the county is compiling information and talking to the poll workers to try to get an estimate on the number of affected voters. Estimates are expected by Thursday, county spokesman Joe Decker said. The Idaho Press emailed county commissioners Wednesday morning requesting comment on the scope of the issue and what the county would do next. Commissioner Leslie Van Beek responded, saying she needed more time to talk with the clerk and learn more before commenting.

Idaho: Precincts experience problems with new Hart InterCivic voting equipment | Rachel Spacek/Idaho Press

Some Canyon County voters were unable to vote on school levies Tuesday because of issues with the county’s new election equipment. Others experienced problems with their entire ballot and were instructed to come back later in the day to vote. Problems started soon after polls opened, according to Middleton School District spokeswoman Vickie Holbrook, when a Middleton voter was unable to vote on the district’s supplemental levy at their polling place, the Notus Community Center. Holbrook told the Idaho Press in an email that Canyon County Clerk Chris Yamamoto went to the precinct and explained how poll workers could work around the ballot issue, so that people could vote on the correct ballot. Yamamoto told the Idaho Press on Tuesday evening he’s unsure how many voters were affected, but he believes the number is low based on the precincts he visited Tuesday. “I have no way of knowing how many people didn’t vote this morning but we have a good idea in certain places,” he said. The county is gathering information to see how many voters were impacted by the ballot problems, Yamamoto said.

Texas: Parker County Commissioner on Hart InterCivic voting machines: ‘We’re not going to tolerate this type of failure again’ | Autumn Owens/Weatherford Democrat

Parker County officials discussed voting machine failures that occurred at five locations on Election Day last week, saying what took place cannot happen again. The discussion took place during Monday’s meeting of the commissioners court and included comments from the elections administrator, county judge, party chairs, commissioners and a representative from Hart InterCivic, the vendor that owns the voting machines. “We had about 14,454 people vote in early voting and that went very smooth — we had seven sites and no major issues whatsoever, so early voting went very well. The problems occurred during Election Day,” Elections Administrator Don Markum said. “We had 13,401 people vote on Election Day at 37 poll sites. The issue we had was the scanners would not read some of the ballots. It was basically five whole sites that had this issue with a lot of the ballots not being able to be read — Santa Fe Baptist Church, ESD 6, Rock Baptist Church, Willow Park and Aledo ISD. Those five sites had major issues.”