Karen Nelson, the elections administrator for Smith County, gives a presentation to the Smith County Commissioners Court recommending new voting machines. (Erin Mansfield/Tyler Morning Telegraph) 

Smith County officials want to spend $1.3 million on new voting machines that an elections official says will make it easier to tabulate ballots on election night.

Members of the Smith County Commissioners Court expressed preliminary support on Tuesday for a plan to buy machines that would replace current ones the county purchased in 2005.

Karen Nelson, the elections administrator for Smith County, gave a presentation to the court outlining voting machine options from two different companies: Elections Systems and Software and HART Intercivic.

Nelson outlined various differences between the two companies’ systems, such as how the machines function during a power outage, compliance with the Americans With Disabilities Act, and how easy it is to tabulate votes after an election.

Nelson said the cheaper option would be Elections Systems and Software, with a cost of $1.3 million to replace the machines. HART Intercivic would charge the county about $2.1 million, according to Nelson.

The county has 380 voting machines. The quotes are for 350 machines plus 45 precinct scanners from Elections Systems and Software; or 311 machines plus 45 disability-access machines, plus other equipment, from HART Intercivic.

Elections Systems and Software is the county’s current vendor, and the quote includes roughly $300,000 in credit because the company would buy back the county’s old machines, according to Nelson.

Nelson also cited many advantages of the product itself. She said the machines offer voters a way to print out copies of their ballots before submitting them, so voters do not have to check their ballots on an electronic screen.

Additionally, she said, each machine made by Elections Systems and Software would be disability-accessible. The other company’s machines are not all disability-accessible, so the county would have to buy one accessible machine for every voting location.

Nelson said one of the biggest advantages of picking the software from Elections Systems and Software is the ease of tabulating votes on election night.

During the March primary, Smith County did not release election returns until after 10 p.m., after neighboring counties had posted their returns. That night, members of the public began coming to the Elections Office to ask what was delaying the returns.

At the time, Nelson said the issue was a combination of a complicated computer system and a poll worker who did not follow procedure when bringing back a disc to the office for counting. The disc had been in the office the entire time.

Nelson said Tuesday the Elections Systems and Software’s new technology would reduce the number of discs that have to be counted from about 350 — one for each voting machine — to just 34 — one for each polling location.

“The ease itself of what the judges have to do is going to speed things up tremendously,” Nelson said. A judge is a poll worker who oversees a polling location. Each location has two judges, one Democrat and one Republican.

“Also, they’ve really streamlined their tabulation process,” Nelson said of the company that makes the new machines. “They’ve taken out a lot of the unnecessary steps, and they’ve made it a lot easier for us to tabulate.”

County Judge Nathaniel Moran said Nelson first told him the machines should be replaced when he was appointed to his position about two years ago. He said he brought the issue to get feedback from the other members of the court.

Moran said he also asked the county’s information technology expert to review the machines to make sure they are adequate.

“The public needs to have confidence that their vote matters, that their vote is secure, and that their vote is not going to be tampered with, and we take that very seriously,” Moran said.

Don Bell, the chief technical officer for Smith County, told the court he has met with the company that makes the machines being considered, and he felt confident the system would be built on good technology.

“I believe it meets all the security requirements that the county needs for this, and it should speed up the process as well,” Bell said. “We talked about the ability and the way the system works. It should speed up the process of reporting the elections as well.”

Commissioner JoAnn Hampton said the Elections Office should set up sample machines for members of the public to use and provide feedback on before the county spends the money on the machines.

Nelson said that was a good idea, and would help educate voters about the election process.

Hampton asked the Elections Office to put a video online of the new machines for people who could not come in person to try the machines.

Commissioner Cary Nix said one of the biggest frustrations he hears from constituents is how long it takes to see returns.

“I think one of the biggest frustrations I get from constituents on election night, is, you know, everybody’s getting their results rolling in and here in Smith County (we’re) at 14 percent, and other counties west or east have got 90 percent,” Nix said.

Commissioner Terry Phillips said, “We have 10- or 12-year-old machines.”

The court agreed to move forward in the process of buying the machines, and to have them set up in the Elections Office later this month.

Moran said the court would decide on the final purchase of the machines during the annual budget process this summer.

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