Bring back voting machines
Re: “Paper ballots waste money,” by Shep Stahel, Wednesday Letters.
Stahel’s assessment of Collin County’s paper ballots is correct. The print was tiny and not easy to read, even with my reading glasses. Filling in the little ovals was time-consuming. I made a mistake and voted against an amendment I was for, but there was no way to correct my mistake without asking for a new ballot.
What will happen in future elections when the number of candidates to choose from is pages long and voters need so much more time to cast each ballot? The lines will be long, and the wait will be longer.
Please bring back the voting machines. They are so much faster and easier to use, and mistakes are easy to correct.
Opinion
Karen Ondocsin, Plano
Paper ballot is boondoggle
For over 20 years, I have always marked my calendar and voted at my local library in Collin County. It has continuously been a positive experience, perhaps bad weather or long lines, however, always an efficient and pleasant process to be voting alongside other Plano neighbors.
Monday, I entered the library and was surprised. There were only two other voters at 10:30 a.m. It occurred to me, perhaps residents were hesitant to cast their vote because under the new bubble system, their ballots can be easily questioned about erroneous or unreadable marks.
This newly adopted voting method raises a major question about the $2.3 million of taxpayer money used to purchase a different voting system. The former method of recording ballot choices by machine worked just fine — the system was not broken.
It also seems logical that machine tabulation of voter selections is more accurate than an election worker who is interpreting whether a bubble mark represents an accurate vote. Remember hanging chads?
An investigation should begin. Why was a $2.3 million purchase necessary and exactly who traded favors so a particular company could receive this bid?
There is not any factual basis for claims of fraud. This purchase was made by politicians who did not make a balanced and thoughtful decision for the benefit of their Collin County residents.
Local representatives should be held accountable for their actions, the paper ballot procedures should be discarded, Collin County taxpayers should be reimbursed for a $2.3 million boondoggle, and this decision should be reversed before the March 2026 elections.
Diana K. Church, Plano
Paper ballots preferred
Our brains do not like change. Apparently, there are those who do not like paper ballots. Personally, I prefer them.
Wednesday, I found voting a breeze because I was prepared. Propositions were listed in the newspaper on Monday. After reading, I jotted a list of 17 yes or no decisions, waltzed into my precinct location, picked up a felt-tipped marker to cast my choices and ran my ballot through a scanner for confirmation. Voila! Done and done.
This was preferable to repeatedly pushing a button that would not accept the choice, walking over to pick up a Q-tip and attempting once again. Sometimes change is good. Give it a try and have faith in the process.
Anne Davidoff, Plano
Mail-in ballot rule contested
I got a call last night from a local political party worker reminding me to vote on Nov. 4. I explained to him we always vote through a mail-in ballot, and I hadn’t received my yet. He suggested I call voter registration to follow up, which I did.
I was informed that each year I have to resubmit mail-in authorization. This is not true. We retired here in 2016, and set it up for mail-in ballots at that time. We’ve never had to re-request each year, in person.
Is this the state’s way of weeding out voters? If it is, this is shameful.
Adrienne Carter, Lewisville
Primaries don’t belong to GOP
As an independent voter living in Dallas, I’m sounding the alarm. The Republican Party of Texas has filed a federal lawsuit against Secretary of State Jane Nelson, demanding that only registered Republicans be allowed to vote in their primaries. Their primaries? Every taxpaying Texan pays for primary elections.
But here’s the kicker: Texas doesn’t register voters by party. That means this lawsuit, if successful, would force every Texan in the state to re-register. Anyone — Republican, Democrat or independent — who doesn’t properly register right away will be shut out of the primaries until they do.
Independent Texans, like me, will be shut out forever. It also means sharing our political identity with the government, and then empowering them to decide who can and can’t vote based on it.
And where are the Democrats? Silence. Crickets. It just demonstrates that their outcry over gerrymandering was about power, not the rights of regular Texans all along.
If you’re a citizen, you should have the right to vote in elections you pay for, end of story.
Sandi Hebley, Dallas/Hillcrest-Forest
List City Hall repairs now
Re: “Council divided: Fix it or relocate? Deteriorating building needs extensive work that may be too expensive to consider,” Wednesday news story.
Thank goodness for the good sense of Chad West who seems to have not only common sense but some financial education. Why is he the only member asking for a complete cost comparison analysis of keeping City Hall versus moving/rebuilding?
Hello, folks, this mentality is what may dig this city out of the financial disasters of the past yet. Where are the rest of the members?
And why can’t the list of needed repairs be made before 2026? That should be a pretty long list already.
Diane Gentile, Dallas