Investigation: Problems Discovered with Election Equipment in Texas
December 13, 2008
By Mireya Villarreal
WOAI-TV
December 10, 2008
SAN ANTONIO - 500,000 San Antonians turned out to vote last month. A record turnout in an historical election. But for some voters, the experience did not go smoothly. News 4 Trouble Shooter Mireya Villarreal exposes one of election night's biggest problems: The voting machines.
The News 4 Trouble Shooters uncovered more than 400 complaints were filed by election judges and voters this past November. Some of the complaints are so serious, the Bexar County Elections Department is already making changes.
"I think we just came out stellar," says elections administrator Jackie Callanen. "It went very smoothly."
For the most part, things did go smoothly.
But taking a closer look at these complaints reveals more than 160 calls about the Ivotronic voting machine, or IVO's for short. The complaints range from one about a voting machine that disappeared to another that died with lots of votes inside.
"It still comes down to the human factor," explains Callanen. "We're asking our election officials, and especially on election day, to come back and remember what you did six months ago. When you haven't seen it or set it up for those six months."
Callanen says her department has used the IVO's for the last five years. And for the last five years, there have been complaints. Callanen tells the News 4 Trouble Shooters, there is a valid explanation for each complaint.
"They have forgotten to plug it in the back, they've forgotten to stand it up so the air circulates around it, or as we talked yesterday, they forget to push the button on the surge protector," says Callanen. "It wasn't a problem. We collected every vote."
Every vote counts? "Every vote counts!" adds Callanen.
Callanen says the machines that died were taken to the elections warehouse where the votes were extracted.
News 4 spoke with Bexar County Democratic Chair Carla Vela. She says the November election flowed smoothly in comparison to other years, but is still concerned about the number of complaints.
"I'm sure we still have glitches, because people did say they pushed a button, for let's say democrat, and it popped up republican." Vela says there will always be problems when voting on electronic machines, but she believes more training for election judges could mean fewer complaints in the future.
Callanen says they are taking these complaints seriously. Before the next city election in May, election judges will go through an IVO refresher course, including an online training session.
Email: MireyaVillarreal@woaitv.com
Source: WOAI-TV
