Government
BY ANNA MANESS & SAM SCHAFFER
Williamson County will return to hand-marked ballots
Leander works to meet ADA compliance Leander City Council on June 5 applied for a $1.1 million grant from the Texas Depart- ment of Transportation. If approved, the money would help the city work toward compliance with the Americans with Disabilities Act and increase safety for those traveling to and from school, according to agenda documents. The details If approved, the grant would fund 80% of the projects and require a 20% match from the city. The funds would enable a self evaluation of city services, programs, activities and facilities on public property and within pub- lic right-of-ways to develop an ADA Transi- tion Plan detailing ways the city can comply with ADA accessibility requirements.
Starting in November, registered voters in Williamson County will ll in their ballots by hand instead of scanning them and using a machine to vote electronically. The change comes after the Trump Administra- tion issued an executive order earlier this year to eliminate barcodes on ballots. What’s happening During a June 24 meeting, commissioners approved purchasing new voting equipment in an e ort to return to a hand-marked ballot system this fall. Registered voters will ll in bubbles by hand to mark their preferences for candidates, measures or propositions. Williamson County Elections Administrator Bridgette Escobedo said the county currently uses ballot-marking devices, or BMDs, to mark paper ballots electronically. The BMD prints a ballot with a barcode, which a machine reads to tabulate
WilCo Elections Administrator Bridgette Escobedo speaks at the June 24 meeting.
ANNA MANESS COMMUNITY IMPACT
votes, Community Impact previously reported. The action taken To comply with the order, Escobedo suggested Williamson County Commissioners adopt a ballot-on-demand system for voters to hand-mark paper ballots, which then get scanned electroni- cally through a printer to tabulate.
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