New voting machines require McLennan County residents to vote with pen and paper

KWTX
By Alex Fulton
Published: Apr. 24, 2023 at 6:29 PM CST

MCLENNAN COUNTY, Texas (KWTX) - It’s officially that time of year again. The campaign signs are up around town and the May election is well underway. But this time around, anyone heading to the polls in McLennan County will find a new way to vote.

”We’re going to print out a paper ballot, they will take that to a privacy booth and they’ll take a pen and make a dark mark in a box,” Jared Goldsmith, McLennan County elections administrator, said.

Once they fill out a box with a pen, they will drop off their ballots in a ballot box before they leave.

”I think it’s going to be a very small learning curve for the public to learn how to use this,” Goldsmith said. “If you can mark a piece of paper, you can easily mark a ballot.”

Goldsmith has spent the last few weeks training poll workers to prepare for the switch from electronic ballots to pen-and-paper ballots.

”For us it’s different and any time it’s different it does take a little bit of time to learn,” he said.

The move is to put the county in compliance with a new Texas law that requires all counties in the state to have voter-verifiable paper ballots by November 2026. State lawmakers passed the law amid nationwide allegations of election fraud in recent years.

”What we selected was actually one of the more affordable options because you don’t have so many pieces of equipment,” Goldsmith said.

The McLennan County Elections Office said so far they had no reported issues with the new machines, and voters say they adjusted to the change.

”There was only one person to vote for, so that was easy,” voter Marlene Proctor said. “But in a presidential election that’s going to take longer with more people.”