Here’s what Tarrant County is doing to prevent voting problems in the March 2020 primary
Tarrant election officials are preparing for early voting in the March 3 primary, boosting training, educating poll workers — and working to prevent a repeat of problems that occurred in November.
Voters found a variety of hangups when they used new machines to cast their ballots. They were also able to vote anywhere in the county on Election Day, rather than at an assigned location as they had in the past.
“We learned a lot from November,” said Heider Garcia, Tarrant County’s elections administrator.
Early voting runs from Feb. 18-28.
Election officials will put more machines at early voting sites, hire more election workers and produce training videos for poll workers. Training for poll workers begins Monday.
The goal, officials say, is to eliminate problems found in November. Among them: some machines didn’t seem to work, others had paper jams and some visually impaired voters found no audio or a private way to cast ballots.
Many of those problems occurred in the morning, prompting some poll workers to send voters to other polling sites.
“Teething problems did occur,” said Stephen Chang, a spokesman with the Texas Secretary of State’s Office about last year’s November election when several counties including Tarrant used new election equipment for the first time. “This was not unexpected.”
That’s why state election officials have been working with election officials across Texas to try to smooth out any problems ahead of the March 3 primary and early voting.
“Texas voters can rest assured ahead of the next election that our office, as well as those of local and county elections officials, are committed to working hand-in-hand to ensure that we improve our processes and that the Lone Star State’s elections are run smoothly and securely,” Chang said.
Areas of focus
The primary will be the second election for Tarrant voters to use the Hart InterCivic Verity machines, which include a touch screen, paper trail and scanners. They replaced Hart InterCivic eSlate machines that were used for more than a decade.
They were unveiled in the constitutional amendment election because the smaller turnout would give officials a chance to work out the kinks.
“Most poll workers will have been through an election already, which eliminates the ‘shock’ factor,” Garcia said.
Here’s a look at some of what election officials have been done:
▪ Talked to vendors to improve technology where needed.
▪ Changed training procedures to emphasize areas where they saw problems last year.
▪ Filmed training videos that are available to all poll workers and the public.
▪ Increased training to help poll workers set up poll books, help voters with disabilities and prepare paperwork at the polling sites.
They also are working to set up some election machines in the training center so poll workers can come by when they have time to practice with the equipment.
“The key is training and training and training,” Tarrant County Judge Glen Whitley said. “As much training as we do, there will still be time between the last training and when voting begins.
“The videos can be critical in helping.”
Four years ago, 105,183 votes were cast in Tarrant’s Democratic primary and 215,386 votes were cast in Tarrant’s Republican primary.
Vote early
Officials with the Austin-based Hart InterCivic machines have been working with Tarrant County and other counties to address problems that cropped up last year and review “proper operation of their technology, procedural best practices” and more, said Steven Sockwell, vice president of marketing for Hart InterCivic.
“We are supporting our customers, including Tarrant County, with solutions and suggestions across the board, some related to the proper use of the technology and some related to other elements of Election Day preparation and operation,” Sockwell said.
Election and party officials encourage voters in Tarrant County and across the state to vote early.
In Tarrant County, 47 early voting sites will be open. Voters may cast ballots at any site.
“Throughout the state, and certainly in Tarrant County, poll workers have gone through more training, counties have more equipment available to handle high turnout and all voting devices have been checked and tested to ensure they are working properly,” Sockwell said.
This story was originally published February 6, 2020 at 6:00 AM.
