Texas voting issues

Election and registration information

 * Where do I vote?


 * Voter information: http://www.sos.state.tx.us/elections/voter/index.shtml

2008 election
For the 2008 election Texas used the following voting machines in addition to hand-counted paper ballots in some counties. For a county-by-county list of the specific machines (and the source for this section) see Verified Voting's Verifier tool.

Direct-Recording Electronic (DRE) machines with a paper trail:
 * Diebold AccuVote TS
 * Diebold AccuVote TSX
 * Election Systems & Software's iVotronic voting machine
 * ESlate

Optical scan machines:
 * Premier Election Solutions's (Diebold) AccuVote-OS voting machine
 * Election Systems & Software's Model 100 voting machine
 * Election Systems & Software's Model 650 voting machine
 * Hart Intercivic E-Scan

Assistive Devices for Marking Paper Ballots
 * AutoMARK Technical Systems AutoMARK VAT

Governmental election authorities
Secretary of State Hope Andrade


 * Website: http://www.sos.state.tx.us/elections/

Contact information:
 * Elections Division
 * P.O. Box 12060
 * Austin, Texas 78711-2060
 * 512.463.5650 or
 * 1.800.252.VOTE (8683)
 * Fax 512.475.2811
 * TTY 7.1.1


 * [mailto:elections@sos.state.tx.us elections@sos.state.tx.us]


 * List of county election officials

Election threats

 * October 16, 2008. Deceptive emails targeting at Democrats claim voters who chose both a "straight party" option and also specify a candidate of that party will not have their votes count.


 * El Paso County is on the 2008 Black Box Voting Watch List, "due to many recent indictments of El Paso public officials on corruption charges and for obstruction of Black Box Voting freedom of information requests."


 * Collin, Guadalupe, Jackson, Lee, Sherman and Wilson counties are on the 2008 Black Box Voting Watch List because they will be using the Diebold/Premier GEMS system in November. This central tabulation system is the subject of a product advisory. It has been discovered dropping votes, a defect which will not be fixed by the 2008 general election.

"'... they have been coerced into dependence on a private vendor for all phases of their election administration -- undermining the entire structure of the county election system. Several of these counties have experienced miscounted elections due to unqualified technicians provided by the vendor. Several counties show symptoms of tampering -- such as mismatched results inside the machine; failure to produce 'zero' reports (symptom of vote-stuffing); and vote-flipping (votes marked for one candidate migrate to another candidate)."
 * Texas' remaining 49 counties are on the 2008 Black Box Voting Watch List because,


 * October 20, 2008. Obama Texas campaign (2008) issued an e-mail titled "Dirty tricks and bad information in Texas." Excerpt:"'Dirty tricks designed to mislead Texas voters have been spreading across the state, and many Obama supporters are getting incorrect information about the voting process. Bogus claims about voting machines are spreading via email chains -- and in one reported case, even broadcast on a Houston radio station -- that could have a huge impact on voter turn out on Election Day. Here is the truth that every Texan should know: If you vote a straight Democratic Ticket you will cast your ballot for Barack.'"

State and local non-governmental election organizations
League of Women Voters

LWV of Texas, Karen Nicholson, President
 * 1212 Guadalupe Street, #107
 * Austin, TX 78701-1800
 * Phone: 512-472-1100
 * Fax: 512-472-4114
 * E-mail: lwvtexas@lwvtexas.org
 * http://www.lwvtexas.org/

Local Leagues:
 * Amarillo
 * Arlington
 * Austin Area
 * Bay Area
 * Brazos County
 * Comal Area
 * Corpus Christi
 * Dallas
 * Denton
 * El Paso
 * Gainesville
 * Galveston Area
 * Houston
 * Irving
 * Johnson County MAL
 * Kerrville Area
 * Lubbock
 * Marshall-Harrison
 * Midland
 * County
 * Plano-Collin County
 * Richardson
 * San Antonio
 * San Marcos
 * Sherman/Grayson County
 * Tarrant County
 * Tyler/Smith County
 * Victoria
 * Waco Area
 * Wichita Falls

VoteRescue.org


 * Description : "VoteRescue is a non-partisan Texas-based election integrity organization that is dedicated to restoring accessibility, fairness, accuracy and total transparency to the democratic process of voting in the United States."


 * Website: http://voterescue.org/index.htm
 * Email: [mailto:karen@voterescue.org karen@voterescue.org], [mailto:karp@voterescue.org karp@voterescue.org]

External resources
Voter ID Toolkit
 * Texas Voter ID Toolkit

External articles

 * Stewart M. Powell, Some Texas-based soldiers report problems casting ballots, Houston Chronicle, October 30, 2008.