Wise
D. A. Sharpe, County Chairman dasharpe@aol.com
www.dasharpe.com www.wiserepublicans.org
LETTER TO
Dear COLLEAGUES:
This is a reminder that we have a
called Executive Committee meeting for Thursday, April 20, 2006 at 6:00 PM in
the 2nd floor 271st District Courtroom of the Wise County
Courthouse on the square in downtown Decatur.
This meeting is open to the public and will be publicized as such.
We will have three purposes:
1.
To
certify the vote totals in the two races we have in Wise County for the Primary
Runoff Election. The certification must
be communicated to the Republican Party of Texas headquarters by noon the next
day.
2.
To
consider the resignation of DeYon Vess as Precinct Chairman for Precinct #27
(and combined with #25). She still will
hold the Executive Committee Ex-Officio post of Third Vice Chairman in charge
of working with Election Judges. We plan
to nominate Mr. Thad Wiekal of Boyd to take her place. He is a trained election judge.
3.
We
need to assess if any action is desired relating to a recent phone call.
Yesterday, I received a phone call from a Wise County
Republican woman who you would recognize as well known in supporting the
Republican Party in Wise County. The
subject of her call was a genuine disappointment in me and I think it is useful
not to identify her at this point. The
issues she brought up deserve attention, I believe, by the Executive Committee.
She claimed that her phone at home was ringing off
the wall with inquiries about whether the Republican runoff election of April
11 was to be conducted without use of paper ballots. She had my assurance that our election was an
all electronic election, a decision made by me in the management planning for
that election. It was a recommendation
by our County Clerk and was based on more than one reason. First, beginning with the earliest election
conducted by Wise County, which will be the November general election, and all
expected future elections will be 100% electronic. The only exception will be for mail in
ballots. There was no reason not to
begin now.
Second, out of 2,072 ballots cast in the March 7
Republican Primary Election, only 75 were paper ballots. It is my understanding, though I do not have
documentation, that a fair number of the 75 were not because the voters did not
want to use an electronic devise, but rather they were encouraged to use the
paper ballot instead of waiting in line for an electronic machine to be
free. That situation should have been
solved for the April 11 election, as the number of machines was increased.
Many of you will remember the lateness of the
election results on March 7. It was due
to the election judge signatures overlapping into the bar code area of the
paper ballots. Each one, after being
rejected by the ballot counting machine, needed to be examined personally,
determined that a duplicate ballot needed to be manufactured, and several
observers needed to watch someone copy the markings on the ballot onto a new
ballot. Then all the observers had to
swear that each vote was copied accurately and faithfully. My friends, that takes time when you’re
dealing with most of the paper ballots.
It is something like three or four minutes for each spoiled ballot. We will not have that problem this week!
The caller expressed her deep disappointment of me in
making the all electronic decision. She
said that all of the older adults did not want to use electronic machines and
that they would not come to the polls if they know there are no paper ballots. She went on to say that she had phoned
“Austin” to confirm that there is a constitutional right that we always are to
have the option of paper ballots in elections.
Several times, I asked her to tell me to whom did she speak and at what
office. She would not reply to that
inquiry. Instead, she only said that I
should know the law and that I should know whom to call.
I did phone the Texas Secretary of State Office,
Elections Division, after her call and spoke with one of their three staff
election law attorneys, Mr. Joseph (Joe) Kulhagny. He said that it is perfectly fine for the
choice to be made to conduct an all electronic election. The authority conducting the election (party,
local government, etc.) may choose to offer paper ballots or not, as long as
each voting precinct has at least one of the electronic voting units designed
for physically limited voters. However,
he repeated that there is no constitutional right to be able to vote in any
particular manner. The only constitutional right is that the ability to vote in
some manner must be offered to the voters.
Offering paper ballots and an electronic system
complicates the counting and integration of the final results. In my opinion, it is an impractical need to
have to provide paper ballots. The
electronic machines have three separate recordings for audit trail on the
voting, in case there is need for a recount or for examining any particular
race. It is my impression that the push
to uphold a paper ballot option is simply distrust in new technology.
My caller cited her phone ringing off the wall with
paperless complaints. I wonder if her
phone on the wall still had a crank. I
wonder if it still had a dial. I’ll bet
it really has digital pushbuttons and that change is something that she and her
household have long since become accustomed.
I think they should become accustomed to new things in voting.
Getting past the issues of paper and machines, the
ending part of the conversation was most troubling to me. She gave me the impression that the direction
to support the all electronic machines was a leadership flaw that was a
conspiracy to get older people no longer to vote. That is the farther from my thinking than
anything! What troubles me is the
question of whether there is sufficient numbers of Republican voters who think
that such might be the case.
Actually, I think there is no action the Executive
Committee needs to take. I think that
this problem is isolated and that we will move on successfully. For example, I do not recall that any paper
ballots were offered when the switch was made years ago to punch cards. When the authorities that operate elections
decided to change equipment, it was done.
I think this is the case here.
However, to be faithful to you in my leadership of
the Executive Committee, I wanted to report this matter to you for your
thoughts and knowledge. Thank you for your faithfulness in the political work
you do.
Your
political friend,
D.
A. Sharpe