County replacing its voting machines

Montgomery County is spending nearly $10 million to replace its aging voting machines.

“I’m always one who hates to spend a lot of money, but I don’t see a choice,” Precinct 3 Commissioner James Noack said regarding last week’s vote.

Elections Administrator Suzie Harvey began noting in November the need to update the machines, purchased in 2005.

“With that system, the only parts available are used, and all of that is in limited supply,” she said in a report in the Conroe Courier at the time. “We were spread very thin for the November 2020 election as far as equipment, especially when we added the additional early voting locations. We are bare bones now.”

Like Harris County, Montgomery County uses voting machines by Austin-based Hart InterCivic. According to the Texas secretary of state’s website, the county has about 1,200 machines. Harvey said with anticipated growth, the county would need about 1,900 machines.

With the new system, voters will enter their selections via a touch screen and then print their ballot when finished. The voter will then scan the ballot to be tabulated

“It will add some time,” Harvey said, adding that poll workers would be available to help voters and keep lines moving smoothly.

The Harris County Commissioners Court in January approved spending $54 million on a fleet of 12,000 new voting machines, unanimously selecting the Hart InterCivic Verity machine to replace the eSlate devices in use since 2002. Commissioners cited a desire to have a paper trail during elections.

Fort Bend County in January 2020 agreed to spend $7.8 million to buy 1,700 voting machines from Elections Systems and Software. Those machines also produce paper ballots.