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Bill Would Require Scannable Ballots Where Counties Opt for Hand Counts; Local Volunteers Oppose
Summary
House Bill 3113 would require counties that opt to hand count paper ballots to use ballots formatted for optical‑scan tabulators, a change that sponsors say would speed verification and opponents say would impose vendor‑driven costs.
The Committee on State Affairs heard testimony on House Bill 3113, which would require counties that conduct hand counts of paper ballots to use ballots formatted so they can be scanned and tabulated by optical‑scan voting machines.
Sponsor Senator Pete Flores told the committee that while hand counting “isn’t inherently wrong,” human counting introduces error and that “hand counting is costly, time consuming, less secure, less accurate.” He said HB 3113 would not ban hand counting but would require scannable ballots so results can be verified quickly.
Opponents from small‑county hand‑count teams and election‑integrity groups testified against the bill. Cindy Castillo, identifying herself as representing Texas Eagle Forum, said she opposed the bill and called it “a vendor bill,” adding concerns about ballot legibility on machine‑printed ballots and the potential for added expense. “We are opposed to this bill,” Castillo said, and described an experience where machine‑printed ballots had microscopic text.
Angela Smith, of the Fredericksburg Tea Party, and Jeanette Harmuth, a leader of Gillespie County’s Echo 65 hand‑counting team, told senators their counties successfully ran hand counts and that HB 3113 would force counties to purchase specially formatted ballots from vendors with barcodes or QR codes, increasing cost and complicating local hand‑count procedures. Harmuth said hand counts are “fully transparent, accurate, verifiable, and auditable as is.”
The chair opened public testimony, heard the witnesses and then closed the record; the bill was left pending. Senators did not vote during the hearing.
Ending: Witnesses urged the committee to preserve counties’ current authority to choose their voting systems and raised cost and vendor‑dependence concerns; sponsors said the bill aims to enable verification while preserving hand counting as an option.
