Watchdog Group Questions Safety Of County Voting Machines

EL PASO — Monday, some residents will urge County Commissioners to consider buying new voting machines that are not easy to hack.

The county elections administrator has submitted a plan to use state funds to buy voting equipment from a company called Premier Election Solutions.

Paul De la Pena,a member of a government watchdog group,says Premier does not have the proper paper trail and has a history of glitches.

“We’re going to spend half million dollars on buying 300 voting machines and we want to make sure commissioners know that they have [other] options,”said de la Pena.

De La Pena said the county’s current voting machines were purchased from Premier when it was known as Diebolt. “Premier voting system is a new name for Diebolt Corporation,” he said. “We’ve seen that they can hack into them in less than 30 seconds, there’s been a congressional report about this.”

De la Pena also told ABC-7 that there are alternatives that are better options to provide people the access to vote and have it protective in the best way.

He plans to show his proposal at Commissioner’s court Monday.