VOTERS WILL HAVE THE CHANCE TO VIEW NEW VOTING EQUIPMENT BEFORE MAY 4, 2019 UNIFORM ELECTION

El Paso County voters will be marking their ballots using new election equipment this May. The new system produces a verifiable paper ballot for the voter to review before casting. “I believe the voters are going to really like this new system,” El Paso County Elections Administrator Lisa Wise said. El Paso County began looking into new equipment and conducted demonstrations in the summer of 2016 but, because of proposed changes to the Texas Election Code, chose to wait until the 2017 Legislative Session had concluded before moving forward with securing funding and purchasing a new system. “The current movement in elections across the country is to utilize some form of paper ballots and retain a paper trail for use in an audit or in the event of an election challenge. This system satisfies that best practice”.

“With any change, comes some adjustment and that’s why we wanted to implement this system in an odd numbered year so that voters were familiar with the process going into 2020,” Wise explained. El Paso County voters are invited to attend public demonstrations beginning March 26, 2019. There will be seventeen events held throughout the County in order to give voters an opportunity to view and try out the new system. There will also be a voting machine set up at the El Paso County Elections Office for the public’s use. For the schedule of public demonstrations, please see below or call the office at (915) 546-2154.