Citizens view paper trail voting system

By Larry Tucker
editor@wood.cm
Posted 4/20/23

Over 200 people took advantage of the Wood County elections department offer to test voting equipment. The current equipment can not be used after Sept. 1, 2026, by state law.  

The county …

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Citizens view paper trail voting system

Posted

Over 200 people took advantage of the Wood County elections department offer to test voting equipment. The current equipment can not be used after Sept. 1, 2026, by state law. 

The county will be required to purchase a new auditable voting system that has a paper trail, according to Wood County Elections Administrator Laura Wise.

Wise made the effort to have this demonstration so the public could respond and ask questions.

“I was pleased with the overall attendance in the two days we had the representatives from Hart here to demonstrate and answer questions. I wanted to make this opportunity available to the Wood County public,” Wise said. “Several people changed their minds from paper ballot to machine marked after seeing the demonstration. Remember this was a little over 200 people here and we do have 34,000 registered voters in Wood County.”

Wise made the arrangement for demonstrations and explanations from two Hart InterCivic representatives, Simon Saenz and Tony Cervantes.

An exit survey asked participants to mark preferences for a hand-marked paper ballot or machine-marked ballot.

“It was simply an exit survey, not a vote,” County Judge Kevin White said. “The exit survey was to be done after people had the chance to operate the voting equipment and ask questions. Some people thought they might be voting on what the county is going to do but that is not the case. Laura (Wise) went out of her way to make sure everybody got a chance to try the equipment and it was very gracious of her to do so.”

The Concerned Citizens of Wood County group supporting the paper ballot initiative were posted under a canopy immediately north of the election office parking lot.

They also had a box at the location to place an opinion which they kept open until 3 p.m. It is not known if those who took the exit survey at the paper ballot location went inside and tried the machines or just took the survey and dropped it in the box.

“There were several people who came in to just ‘vote’ instead of actually seeing a demonstration or asking questions,” Wise added.

A vendor selling Trump and other political paraphernalia set up near the paper ballot canopy and by the Wood County Tax Office.

Courthouse security was notified and had the vendor removed.

The vendor did not have a required city permit.