Hays County Gets First Look At New Voting Machines

Staff Reports

This year when Hays County voters enter their polling place, they’ll see a new collection of machines greeting them.

On Wednesday, members of the media were invited to the Hays County Elections Office at the Hays County Government Center to get the first look at county’s new voting equipment, Hart InterCivic Verity Duo Voting System.

The Hays County Elections Office has begun to receive the first deliveries of the county’s new polling equipment and began the preliminary testing before the equipment is placed in storage until November.

According to Jennifer Anderson, Hays County Elections Administrator, each of the 400 machines purchased by the county must be unboxed, set up and tested before it can be stored for use in the upcoming election.

The Hart InterCivic Verity Duo Voting System is comprised of three units required to complete the full voting process.

Poll workers will be stationed at a machine where they will check in voters and issue them an access code. Voters will then take their access code to one of the polling machines where they will record their votes. Voters will be able to review their selection on the screen before hitting print. However, for the voters’ selections to be tallied, a printed copy of their ballot must be printed and scanned by the poll workers. The paper ballots are then stored in a black voter box for election auditing and recount purposes. 

If the printed ballot is unreadable or if it does not match the voters’ selections, voters will be able to take the ballot to a poll worker, who will spoil, or void, it and file it separately before issuing the voter a new access code. 

To spoil a ballot means to void it and set it aside in a separate stack not to be counted in the official tally.

Anderson said voters will be able to spoil a ballot up to three times; the ballot cannot be spoiled after it is scanned.

The Hart InterCivic Verity Duo Voting System is a bilingual system, which allows voters to change the language at any time during the voting process; the language options are English and Spanish.

Anderson said the county’s old election equipment, the DRE system, was a product of the HAPA funding from 2002, which was sent out from the federal government down to local counties all over the nation to purchase Direct Recording devices.

All the Hart InterCivic Verity Duo Systems are ADA Accessible, and each polling location will have at least one device set up for ADA accessibility.

According to Anderson, the ADA-Accessible machines will be wheeled out to voters curbside and are equipped with sip-and-puff assistive technology along with earphones.

Sip-and-puff assistive technology is designed for individuals with limited or no motor capability to operate switch activates devices.

The county has purchased enough machines, so local jurisdictions can rent the machines instead of having to worry about purchasing their own equipment for local elections.  

The Hays County Elections office is inviting voters to try out the new equipment before the election in November and the 2020 Presidential Election. Polling machines have been set up at the offices of each County Commissioners’ precinct office, the third floor of the Hays County Courthouse and the Hays County Elections Office with demo ballots.

Anderson said she was excited to use the new equipment for the first time this November.

The Hart InterCivic Verity Duo System will be available for preview at the commissioners’ precinct offices and the Hays County Government Center until early voting begins in October.