Friday, March 21, 2014

And So It Begins: Electronic voting machines impounded after allegations of tampering

03/21/2014
Photo:
More slideshows »

 A dozen political candidates in Hidalgo County may be affected by allegations that electronic voting machines were tampered with.
Following their outcries all machines used during the primary elections will be impounded.

"There were some allegations raised during the county elections whether the machines were calibrated or not," Hidalgo County District Attorney Rene Guerra said.

The counties district attorney office filed the request for the impoundment and a state district court judge approved the order.

"There are also some allegations that I have not yet verified that some of the vote totals on some of the machines do not add up to the number of people that cast their ballot," Guerra said.

Guerra, who lost his election during the primary election, told Action 4 News in a phone interview that he is not one of the candidates filing a complaint.

Elections administrator Yvonne Ramon declined an interview regarding the electronic voting machines impoundment.

In an interview with Action 4 News back in February she said the state approved the electronic voting machines used in the county.

"All the security measures are done by the state so they run these machines through the gamut and make sure they have internal measures that are secure," she said.

Ramon also said there are several security measure in place including:

-A key to turn on the machine
-A password to get into the machine
-A separate key to allow a voter to cast their ballot
-The machines are programmed to go into a sleep mode after a period of time

The Hidalgo County Commissioners Court will hold a special meeting Friday.

The only item on the agenda is considering the hiring of a forensic analyst to inspect the counties electronic machines.

source

No comments:

Post a Comment