EARLY VOTERS SEE DELAYS AFTER STATE DECERTIFIES ELECTION EQUIPMENT

  

The Washington County Elections Office is asking for patience from voters, after state decertification of equipment has led to some longer-than-expected wait times to cast ballots during early voting.

Washington County Elections Administrator Carol Jackson said on Wednesday that the county’s electronic pollbooks, which are used by poll workers to verify voter information, are going through a recertification process and have not yet been approved for use in this election. 

According to The Texas Tribune, the state decertified pollbooks from Election Systems and Software (ES&S) in December, following issues in this past November’s election where voters in Dallas County received incorrect ballots.  The decertification led to counties having to wait for ES&S’s software to be re-certified, or pay for new software and quickly get elections staff up to speed on it.

In the meantime, Jackson said the county is having to use a paper official list of registered voters along with a paper combination form, where voters’ information has to be handwritten.  She said this process is “much slower” than using the pollbook. 

Jackson stressed that Washington County did not experience any issues like Dallas County did with its pollbooks from ES&S, saying they worked in the proper manner required to qualify voters at check-in and issue the correct ballot styles. 

Anyone who is planning to vote is asked to bring their voter certificate with an acceptable form of identification in order to help decrease voter check-in time. 

As for how long it will take before the pollbooks are certified, Jackson said she hopes they will be ready for use before Election Day on May 3^rd, if not before early voting is over.