Should the County Count Ballots by Hand?

Citizen Calls For Manual Counting to Combat Election Fraud; Hefner says: ‘If you want to combat fraud, you need to be part of the process’

Fayette County citizen Ron Briggs spoke at last week’s Commissioners Court meeting to raise concerns about election security. Briggs said Commissioners should investigate the feasibility of implementing manual vote counting in Fayette County.

“There have been allegations for decades that there has been blatant fraud happening in our elections,” Briggs said. “This is particularly true since 2020 and even in the most recent 2022 midterms.”

Briggs said some citizens are not interested in election fraud. He said others believe there was extensive election fraud in the 2020 and 2022 elections. He said a third group of citizens dismiss election fraud as nonsense or a conspiracy theory.

“Battles surrounding whether or not there was fraud in elections is causing enormous harm to our Republic,” Briggs said. “I believe we will not settle this dispute by continuing down the current path. This needs to be resolved one way or another quickly.

“As a citizen of Fayette County, I strongly recommend that our County begin researching the feasibility of moving towards elections being completely paper-based – from pen and paper ballot all the way to ballot counting, all manually,” Briggs said.

“Naysayers and those who oppose the thought believe it will be a waste of time,” Briggs said. “Or they are opposed to it for personal reasons or other motivations. Another reason for not voting manually is because citizens and mainstream media expect election results to be available quickly. Will paper ballots delay election results? Perhaps.”

“I’ve spent my career in software development and I understand there are bugs in every computer program,” he added. “We’ve been assured by experts that the voting machines do not have access to the internet. These things are safe and infallible. So what happens to the vote tallying computers when there is no election? They get stored, put away until the next election. However, as elections approach, there is a need to install upgrades to the vote counting software and computer operating system. This is a fact of life. It happens to all computers. In the case of these vote counting computers, how do they get upgraded?

“This contentious problem is fixable,” Briggs said. “Let’s stop chasing our tail, solve the argument, and move to complete paper ballot voting.”

The Record interviewed Fayette County Elections Administrator Terri Hefner on Monday, Nov. 14, about the feasibility of paper ballots and manual counting.

“The way we count ballots with our scanners is completely accurate,” Hefner said.

After every election, the State of Texas requires every county to perform a partial manual recount as a check on electronic ballot scanning machines. The state randomly selects three voting precincts within the county for the manual count.

“We’re doing the partial manual recount now, we’re in the process of finishing it, and the numbers are perfect,” Hefner said on Monday. “They match perfectly with the scanners.”

Hefner said none of the County’s ballot counting machines or voting machines are connected to the internet. She said the only equipment connected to the internet are the County’s poll books – the computers used at polling sites to verify whether a voter is registered, whether they have already voted and whether they are at the correct polling location.

“We do real-time updates of the poll books on Election Day,” Hefner said. “Let’s say someone died. We update the list immediately and it goes out to the poll books at all the voting locations.”

At Thursday’s meeting, Briggs said he believes election equipment remains susceptible to tampering even if it’s not connected to the internet.

“The experts can claim all they want that computers are safe and secure, but there are ways to circumvent the internal security software,” Briggs said.

Hefner disagreed, saying she does not believe someone could access the machines through the internet.

“Show me where the holes are,” Hefner said. “I have yet to have that happen.”

Hefner invited citizens with concerns about election fraud to participate in County elections as poll workers. She could use the help. Hefner said the Fayette County Elections Office often struggles to find enough people to work as election clerks, election judges, on the central counting station team, on the early voting ballot board, and other important positions on election day.

“When LBJ was President, they had problems with fraud back then, and those were all manually counted ballots,” Hefner said. “Whether you do it by hand or by machine, that’s not the problem. People’s ethics are the problem.

“I want Fayette County to trust what we’re doing,” she added. “I want everyone to feel that they can trust the process. I want them to know their vote counts.”

Hefner said Briggs has never contacted her office about elections fraud concerns.

“Personally, I think he’s talking without knowledge,” Hefner said. “He’s not talking about Fayette County; he’s talking about what’s going on in other places. I feel that people repeat what they hear without knowing what the process is.

“The best way to address fraud is through oversight,” she said. “People watching, having poll watchers present to see if everyone who wants to vote is who they say they are, to see how the ballots are counted. If you want to combat fraud, you need to be a part of the process.”