New voting system approved; resident threatens AG complaint
Resident Patty Cope shared a notice of an official complaint on Burnet County’s new voting system at the Commissioners Court’s special meeting March 17. Staff photo by Elizabeth De Los Santos
Burnet County commissioners approved the purchase of the Hart InterCivic Ballot on Demand voting system on Monday, March 17, at a special meeting. The paper-based system will replace the previous direct-recording electronic system to meet a state mandate with a 2026 deadline.
During the Commissioners Court meeting, some in attendance expressed their dissatisfaction with the decision, including resident Patty Cope, who said she plans to file a complaint with the Texas Attorney General’s Office for “deceptive trade practices” concerning Hart InterCivic.
Precinct 2 Commissioner Damon Beierle also opposed the purchase with the only “no” vote.
Beierle’s specific concern was speculation that a future state or federal mandate would require another voting system upgrade and make the Hart system obsolete.
“I am looking forward to the paper ballot. I just want to make sure it’s the right time,” he told Dailytrib.com. “We have a waiver to use our old machines until the (mandated 2026) deadline, so I just wanted to make sure we’re considering the timeline of an upgrade.”
The Commissioners Court and county officials have been discussing a transition and this specific system since at least June 2024, when they held a public demonstration of the Hart equipment and proposed buying it before the spring 2025 election. The transition is necessary due to Texas Senate Bill 1, passed in 2021, which mandated that all voting systems in Texas provide a voter-verifiable paper trail by September 2026.
Burnet County Elections Administrator Doug Ferguson, addressing Beierle’s concern, said another system upgrade likely would not be mandated anytime soon, but if it were, it would probably be accompanied by federal funding.
“In the early 2000s, (the federal government) mandated the Help America Vote Act, which required electronic voting machines at all polling locations to meet ADA (Americans with Disabilities Act) standards,” Ferguson told Dailytrib.com. “They also had this huge national grant that they gave portions to every state to fund this mandate … setting precedence for big mandates like that. The federal government knows it would cost a fortune and be not feasible without funding.”
Cope, who previously filed a lawsuit regarding voting machines in 2022, said she is filing a complaint with the Texas AG claiming the Hart InterCivic master agreement (contract for the voting system purchase) is “misleading, unfair, and deceptive.” She also claims that “at least one Hart employee made factually incorrect statements to voters … in pursuit of ‘sale.’”
Cope refused to comment on what was misleading or deceptive about Hart’s master agreement or sales practices.
Additionally, her complaint claims voters’ rights were infringed upon with this new purchase, declaring potential escalation to legal action if the new contract is not reviewed by the Texas attorney general.
“I want the AG’s office to look at the contract from a constitutional voter perspective,” Cope told DailyTrib.com. “I have questions and I don’t know who to send my questions to and I don’t think the county attorney’s office has the authority to change anything in the contract since it was mandated by the state.”
5 thoughts on “New voting system approved; resident threatens AG complaint”
Comments are closed.
This new system needs one extra item to help insure votes get counted and actually has a paper trail incase of recounts. There needs to be two copies of what the machine prints out. One for the voter to drop in the box and one for the voter to keep.
Great idea!
The system is actually pretty good and it’s only “sort of” reverting to paper. The voter will input the choices on a screen and then print out the paper ballot. Then review it and drop it in the ballot box like in the “good old days.” Counting is still done electronically except in the case of a hand recount.
We’re stuck with it. It’s mandated state and federally. This particular version from Hart has been studied by the County for years and was recently discussed at an extensive public forum. It’s hard for me to understand the objections launched by Ms. Cope but I do say that she has studied it a lot including reading the contract.
For me the seminal issue is security and it appears to be quite secure and protects the privacy of the vote.
The idea to revert to a paper-based voter system is so backwoods.
To quote our illustrious governor, it could be worse! We revert back to chiseling our vote onto stone.
Just provide online voting capabilities to all eligible voters and call it a day.
Why vote at all?