Public comments urge changes to election practices, citing system vulnerabilities and contingency needs

Several speakers used the public‑comment period to raise concerns about election security and contingency planning ahead of forthcoming elections. Chuck Reynolds warned that the county’s systems are "vulnerable," criticized barcode‑based ballot encoding and the narrow scope of state audits, and urged fixes before November. Lee Moore advocated for hand‑marked paper ballots, citing other states' moves and local incidents of ballot 'flips' at a McKinney site: "We must go to hand marked paper ballots to preserve the voters' intent," Moore said.

Debbie Lindstrom asked whether the county has a practical contingency plan if the internet goes down, citing FBI and CISA warnings that distributed denial‑of‑service attacks could disrupt election functions such as electronic poll books. She asked that poll workers and election officials be trained for offline procedures and called for assurance that ballot secrecy and audibility would be preserved in such circumstances. Lindstrom stated she was not seeking proprietary code but requested a clear plan for continuity.

These comments touched on technical process risks, audit scope, and operational readiness; the court did not take immediate action on these requests during this meeting. The transcript records calls for action but does not document any staff response or county policy change at this session.