By BJ Austin, KERA News
http://stream.publicbroadcasting.net/production/mp3/kera/local-kera-877167.mp3
Dallas, TX –
A federal court order to fix Dallas County electronic voting machines could have statewide impact. KERA's BJ Austin says the issue is cancellation of some votes, without the voter's knowledge.
The ruling from the federal panel comes after the 2008 Texas House, District 105 race between Democrat Bob Romano and Republican incumbent Linda Harper-Brown of Irving.
After a hotly contested recount that showed Romano losing by 19 votes, the Texas Democratic Party sued Dallas County. Lawyers argued that the county's electronic voting machines "de-selected" a candidate on a straight party ticket when the voter also highlighted that candidate in what's called "emphasis voting."
Bob Romano says the "emphasis votes" were cancelled without any warning to the voter, and it cost him in the final count.
Romano: It certainly is something that needs to be fixed, so that when people cast a vote, they can go away comfortable that as they meant their vote to be, it will be counted that way. I don't think that's happening today. And my race, it was so close, 19 votes. It certainly would have made a difference.
Dallas County Judge Jim Foster says the court has spoken, and Dallas County will comply quickly -- with the cooperation of the machine manufacturer.
Foster: It sounds to me like it's a program issue. And it sounds like that the provider of the equipment, all they have to do is re-program the equipment.
Chad Dunn, attorney for the Texas Democratic Party, says Dallas County may not be the only one re-programming electronic voting machines after the federal ruling. He says as many as 4/5ths of Texas counties could be affected.
Dunn: They all have machines that have this same problem. So, hopefully, Dallas County, the other counties, the Secretary of State's office will use this as an opportunity to get with the manufacturers and make the system better, and eliminate this problem that could be easily resolved.
Dunn says election specialists have been raising this software glitch issue for years. But no one's fixed it. A spokesman for the Secretary of State says the office is going over the ruling to determine how counties use systems similar to Dallas.