Dear Editor:

More than a decade ago, Wood County purchased electronic voting machines and ended the use of paper ballots. We feel that this was a mistake. Electronic voting machines are programmed with ballot information before each election by employees of companies not controlled or understood by election officials. The final vote is stored in electronic memory, not on paper, and can easily be changed by miscreant programmers either before or after the election. It must be admitted that a recount when using electronic voting is meaningless, because there is no traceability from ballots to vote counts.

The best, and in fact the only traceable voting method is hand marked paper ballots (HMPB). These would be scanned by simple, non-connected electronic scanners, easily checked in randomly chosen precincts by hand counting. This is done in other counties in Texas and used to be done here. Sometimes “progress” is not progress.

County commissioners will be choosing voting equipment soon. Please call their office and demand HMPB, and/or sign our petitions which are circulating in the county. Look for people with clipboards and yellow signs, or sign the petition at

The Mercantile

4845 FM 779

Mineola, TX 75773

Thanks,

Greg Smith

Mineola