On October 1st, 35 days before Election Day, the Dallas County GOP issued a press release alleging that there were, “four voting system components that are illegal or were illegally certified by the Texas SOS that, as of now, will be used in Dallas County’s November election.” DCRP Chairman Allen West called on the Texas Secretary of State (SOS) to rectify the situation. Dallas County voters were left fearing for the security of their county’s elections, but were these accusations true?
The first allegation was that the main tabulation computer failed the Logic and Accuracy Test, that the elections administrator “provided no credible reason for the tabulation errors, or what was done to fix it” and that it was illegally certified. The Logic and Accuracy Test is a dress rehearsal for the election that is conducted in front of the public. Sample ballots are pre-marked and “voters” use those ballots to make their selections on a sample size of voting machines. Every ballot style and every race on the ballot is involved in the test. At the end of the test the result is checked against the expected outcome to ensure everything is programmed correctly.
The Dallas County Elections Department (DCED) conducted the test on September 18th and discovered that a “human error in the ballot printing process” had occurred. They regrouped, fixed the mistake, and conducted the test once again the next day and the result was accurate. Appointees from both the Democratic and Republican Parties certified the new result. The Logic and Accuracy Test exists to find mistakes like this and correct them before the actual election, it worked as is intended.
If Dallas County had failed the second Logic and Accuracy Test, SOS inspectors should have been called to investigate. In this case those inspectors found that “each component tested was found to be running software that is fully certified by both the Election Assistance Commission (EAC) and the Texas Secretary of State, as required by law.”
The remaining allegations, if true, would apply to all ES&S voting equipment across Texas. They are not unique to Dallas County. If the Dallas voting machines are decertified roughly half of the voting machines in the state would be decertified. Those who want to return to hand-marked, hand-counted paper ballots may celebrate or even champion such a move, but at what cost? The hand-counting of ballots cannot be implemented overnight and this would cause chaos. Is this really the time to fuel fear and cause panic over unproven allegations and demands of decertification?
Election integrity advocates must use caution before making allegations. We have to pick our battles. If we make five claims and even one is found faulty, we will be discredited for all of them. We must also direct our concerns at those who are truly accountable. Don’t accuse or berate your election official for something that was decided by the Secretary of State. Don’t reprimand the Secretary of State for something the Texas Legislature failed to do. Most importantly, don’t instill fear and incite chaos right before an election unless it is truly justified and can be corrected.