With a grant from the Help America Vote Act (HAVA) scheduled to expire at the end of the year, the Walker County Commissioners Court discussed ways in which to spend the remaining funds to help streamline the election process and modernize voting options in the county.

According to Walker County Tax Assessor Diana McRae, all money not spent by Dec. 31 will be sent back to the state.

McRae presented an update to the court during a regular session on Tuesday morning with a list of items the county plans to purchase with the funds that remain from the original grant.

Included on the list are electronic poll books that will allow poll workers to more efficiently handle voter check-in and verification while also improving the ability to help voters find their correct polling location.

“That’s going to speed up the voter check-in process it also improves the accuracy for the voter look-up,” McRae said. “It will also reduce some of the paperwork and printing of the poll books.

“The beauty of it also is that on election day, it will tell you specifically if you are not in (Precinct 1 or 2), it will tell you – it gives you directions to that polling location, it gives you an address and even a phone number that we can give possibly directly to another polling judge in another location.”

McRae said the electronic books will also assist workers with sending voter history to Austin and prevent them from having to manually document and send the information.

“It collects voter history data throughout the entire election – who voted and when they voted and how they voted – if they voted provisionally, if they voted early or if they voted on election day,” McRae said. “The best part about that is that it’s actually compatible with the TEAM system, which is what we use to work with the Secretary of State’s office for all of our voter information.”

The county is also looking to buy several electronic voting machines, which will help to update the voting system and provide voters with more options by which to cast their ballot.

“This basically is just going to give the system another way to vote,” McRae said. “It is not going to take away paper ballots at all – paper ballots will be here. It’s just going to give us an option for the voter where they can choose.

“Basically it’s just going to modernize some of our equipment. We’re not planning on having them all at every polling location. We’re going to have them at early voting and maybe at some of the big boxes.”

After County Judge Dannyt Pierce expressed concern for the effects of electronic voting on a potential recount, McRae assured the court that the machines are equipped to handle such an event and come with a variety of measures to ensure the integrity of the votes.

“These machines have three independent memories to insure that no votes will be lost or altered,” McRae said. “As far as a recount goes, we’re able to replicate each vote that goes into the system, which means we can print out a ballot image for every single vote.

“We can always go back and count manually also.”

The court postponed the approval of a lease agreement with the HEARTS Veterans Museum until a later session.

In other action on Tuesday, the court:

• Approved minutes for Oct. 6 with corrections.

• Approved monthly report for September 2009.

• Approved vacation accrual over the maximum allowed by policy.

• Approved approve bill paying in the amount of $1,094,216.23.

• Approved claims and invoices submitted for payment in the amount of $58,643.99.

• Approved specifications for Bid No. C2360-10-001 for Hauling Road Material.

• Approved H-GAC FY10 Solid Waste Implementation Program Contract.

• Approved Interlocal Agreement with City of Huntsville concerning improvements to Ellisor Road and Parker Creek Road.

• Approved grandfather status of 15-acre tract located in the George Mallard Survey A-665, as described in Volume 404, Page 285 of the Official Public Record, Walker County, Texas.

• Approved nominations to the Walker County Appraisal District Board of Directors.

• Approved ratifying letter to TxDOT supporting the City of Huntsville for state Highway 19 project.

• Approved ratifying Proclamation 2009-32 “Robinson Memorial Dedication”.

• Approved Proclamation 2009-33 “Fire Prevention Month.”

• Approved new members to the Walker County Partnership for Children in Need Board.

• Approved Agreement for Operation of Senior Center.

• Approved adding Gibbs Powell House to list of jury donations.

• Approved funds for Walker County Employee Christmas Luncheon/Dec. 17 at the Walker County Storm Shelter.

• Approved two-hour lunch for the Employee Christmas Luncheon/Dec.17.