By Karen Gleason
The 830 Times
County officials say they want Val Verde County voters to know the county is ready for
November’s General Election, and that the election will be run fairly.
Election issues were discussed during Wednesday’s county commissioners court meeting
during an agenda item titled “discussion and possible action regarding a review of
certifications of the voting systems and explain the election process at polling locations.”
County Judge Lewis G. Owens Jr. prefaced the discussion with comments about phone
calls he has been receiving.
“We’re getting phone calls about our (voting) machines are going to get hacked, and
people are freaking about over something that’s not going to happen because we’re not
hooked up other than to the wall plugs,” Owens told the court and audience.
He then recognized County Clerk Esther Chapoy, who had asked the item to be placed on
the court’s agenda.
Chapoy said, “Judge and commissioners, you all remember that back in 2021, this court
paid $435,000, nearly half a million dollars, for the equipment we use today, and I have
the invoice and I have the serial numbers of the 80 ExpressVotes (machines) that we use
and the 19 DS200s that we use, and we have one DS450, which is the big tabulating
device.
“Back in 2023, (Texas) Secretary of State Jane Nelson certified that the poll books that
we use are certified for use in the state of Texas, and back in 2020, before you all bought
the ES&S equipment, that equipment was certified for use by the state of Texas. There
are only two brands of election equipment that are authorized to be used in the state of
Texas, that is Hart, which we used to use, and ES&S, which is certified also by the state
of Texas,” Chapoy said.
Chapoy then introduced her two election clerks, Cynthia Reyes and Ruby Nieto.
Owens said, “I’m going to make some comments and you correct me if I’m wrong. You
go get registered to vote at the voter registrar. That person gets registered and the
information is put in the system, and it comes out where you all (county clerk’s office)
can see it.
“That person goes to vote, and we’ve had some issues, and some of the stuff looks like
it’s fixed, and then it’s not fixed. We have some issues right now that we’re going to be
dealing with during this meeting and after this meeting, where information that’s being
put in is correct and we think everything’s good, and then it’s not good.
“But, once we get to the process where that individual can vote, we as a court redistricted
and drew lines, and if we follow the (redistricting) map, we should be okay, but at the end
of the day, there are some individuals that are correct in the system and then they’re not,
and we’re working on that,” Owens said.
“Our machines are not hooked up to the internet,” Owens added.
Reyes, who took the podium to speak to the court, added, “There are no Wi-Fi chips in
any of our voting machines. The only things that are on Wi-Fi are the poll pads, which we use at check-in, when we check in the voter, when we scan your photo ID. That is the
only thing that’s on Wi-Fi because they need to talk to each other because we need to
make sure that one person didn’t come in to vote with the first clerk, and then they went
down to the number 10 clerk and checked in twice.
“So they need to be able to sync and communicate with each other throughout the day so
that people do not come in and vote more than once. . . Our Express Votes, which is the
actual machine that you stick your ballot in, your blank ballot and you go and you make
your selections, that’s the Express Vote. It’s a marking device. There’s no memory in it.
It doesn’t hold any information. It doesn’t tabulate anything. There’s no built-in Wi-Fi
chips.
“When you take (the ballot) out, when you are finished, you walk over to the DS200.
That is a tabulating device. That, you stick your ballot in, and it counts, but everything is
held in (the machine’s) USB drive. There is, again, no Wi-Fi chip.
Nobody can get into
that machine via Wi-Fi. We do not put them on Wi-Fi. There’s no way that they can be
put on Wi-Fi because there are no W-Fi chips in the machines,” Reyes said.
Owens then asked about the process on the day of the election.
“You take out the USB, you bring the paper ballots that are in the machine and that’s
what’s taken to the courthouse to be tabulated,” Owens said.
Reyes said the USB drives from the DS200s are put in the main computer at the
courthouse.
“That computer, too, does not have Wi-Fi capabilities. It’s standalone. The only thing it
does, we place the USBs into that computer, and it downloads all of the ballots that were
counted,” Reyes said.
She said she had heard people ask why early voting totals can’t be provided sooner.
“The thing we need to understand about early voting is, by law, we cannot plug that USB
into that computer until the polls have closed on Election Day.
And at the same time,
we’re working with a lot of ballots. . . We already have the early voting ballot board
meeting. They’re meeting as we speak, because they started meeting last week because
we’re already receiving ballots in that we’ve sent out. That does take time, and we can’t
count ballots until Election Day,” Reyes said.
Reyes told the court the county clerk’s office so far has sent out 857 absentee ballots and
the office is still processing about 100 applications for absentee ballots.
“So we’re getting close to about 1,000 absentee ballot,” Reyes said, again adding that
those ballots cannot be counted until Election Day.
Owens asked the commissioners if they had any questions.
“I thought this was important because we’re getting phone calls that we’re going to be
hacked, you name it. The rumors are rampant, and none of them are true,” Owens said.
“Right,” Reyes said.
“One of the things, they have to balance. You have so many ballots that are given out,
and then you have to balance,” Owens said.
“Yes, we do,” Reyes said.
“You count to see what goes into the machine and all this stuff needs to balance,” Owens
said.
“Yes, we have to account for every single ballot that we have. We do have to account for
it, at the end of the election, at the end of the day. That’s why, our poll workers at every
polling location, it does take them time to come back to us. We do ask them, once they close their poll, we ask them to bring their USBs, and the alternate judge brings us that
USB, and it comes to us as soon as they close their poll. It comes straight to the
courthouse, so we can begin the tabulation, but it does take time for them to close and
finally finish there, because we have to, at the end of the day, balance, for every single
ballot,” Reyes said.
Owens also announced the county “would have more security” at the early voting
location at the Del Rio Civic Center and at the various polling locations on Election Day.
“We will have security at the polling places and even at the one in Comstock, because it’s
so far. We will have a deputy who will bring it or escort the individual that’s bringing it,
so there are measures that have been taken in the past, and we’re taking more measures
now,” Owens said.
He noted that because Sheriff Joe Frank Martinez is on the November General Election
ballot, he is usually the one who “holds the keys.”
Owens said when the sheriff is on the ballot, that duty falls on the county judge.
Chapoy added, “All of our ballots are serially numbered. All of the early voting ballots
have my name on them or my initials, and on Election Day, the presiding judge signs
every ballot, on the back side.”
Chapoy added, “Judge, I’d like to personally thank you, because when we went to the
seminar, Ms. Reyes and Ms. Nieto and I went to the election seminar, they told us that we
should be expecting the unexpected, and one thing that we’re really concerned about right
now is all those hurricanes that are floating around, and so I appreciate your help with
generators to keep our systems running in case we should get hit with anything during
that time.”
County Commissioner Pct. 3 Beau Nettleton commented, “I want to thank you all for
what you do. I want to assure the people of Val Verde County that our elections are safe.
I can’t speak for the rest of the United States. I’m only speaking for our county.
“The important part is to go vote. It’s your voice to decide who’s going to represent you
for the next four years, and when we have a small voter turnout like we normally do, 15
percent, 18 percent, it’s not a representation of this community, so this community needs
to show up and get engaged in the process. If they don’t like the process they see before
them, this is your opportunity to change the process. Show up to the polls and vote,”
Nettleton said.
Reyes noted she has reviewed the voter numbers in the 2020 presidential election in Val
Verde County.
“When I looked at the numbers, I was actually thoroughly impressed with Val Verde
County because we had a 64 percent voter turnout. On the first day of early voting alone,
we had about 1,400 people show up to the polling place, and we’re expecting more (this
year), and since that time, we have an additional over 7,000 voters now. We’re over
30,000 registered voters here in Val Verde County now,” Reyes said.
“And that’s been since the logs have been cleared and everything’s correct now?”
Nettleton asked.
“We’re over 30,100 now,” Reyes said.
“Well, I’d like to see over 20,000 of them show up and vote,” Nettleton replied.
“We have enough ballots,” Chapoy added.
Owens thanked the clerk and her staff, and the court took no action following the
presentation.
The writer can be reached at delriomagnoliafan@gmail.com.
