Lawsuit challenges electronic voting in Texas

Seeking to keep Travis County from using its electronic voting system in upcoming elections, an Austin civil rights group

claims in a lawsuit filed Wednesday that the system violates state law because it doesn't produce paper ballots.

Electronic voting systems don't allow for transparency and could potentially lead to voter fraud, said members of the Texas Civil Rights Project after the group filed a lawsuit against the Texas Secretary of State Roger Williams and Travis County Clerk Dana DeBeauvoir.

Nearly 95 counties in Texas and 26 states currently have paper ballots in conjunction with electronic voting systems, which became mandatory in all elections nationwide after the passage of the Help America Vote Act in 2002.

Hart InterCivic eSlates provides electronic voting systems for half of all registered voters in Texas and, in addition to Travis County, also has distributed systems to Harris and Tarrant Counties, where a computer malfunction counted an additional 100,000 votes during a primary in March.

"Imagine walking into a bank and depositing money without getting a record of your transaction," said Nelson Linder, the Austin president of the NAACP. The lawsuit states that the use of electronic voting machines violates Texas' Constitution and Election Code. The petition also asserts that requiring paper ballots in addition to electronic systems would reduce voting fraud and provide for more accurate recounts.

The Texas Civil Rights Project, which is acting as attorney on behalf of the plaintiffs, has so far only filed lawsuits in Travis County and hopes that this is the only step necessary in moving the state Legislature into action.