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CodeMonkeyZ,
RUNBECK made the ballots for Tarrant county that allegedly had a 30% error rate causing the barcodes to be unscannable.
Unscannable barcodes on ballots may cause the ballot to go to digital adjudication where it can be “fixed” by a person.
https://www.star-telegram.com/news/politics-government/election/article246746216.html
One-third of Tarrant County mail-in ballots have a defect, but votes will still count
BY BRIAN LOPEZ AND GORDON DICKSON
OCTOBER 27, 2020 10:52 AM, UPDATED OCTOBER 27, 2020 06:08 PM
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About one-third of Tarrant County mail-in ballots have been rejected by computer scanners because the bar codes are not legible, but the votes will still be counted, election administrator Heider Garcia told county commissioners on Tuesday.
The county’s state-approved print shop is not making the bar codes 100% scannable, Garcia said.
The county’s ballot board will have to copy the mail-in ballots into new ones and scan them, Garcia said. If about 60,000 mail-in ballots get returned, Garcia expects about 20,000 of those will need to be redone by the ballot board.
Garcia said this isn’t a new issue. In the past, people might have damaged the bar code themselves and the ballot board would need to redo the ballot, but this year the sheer volume is concerning. But Garcia assured that staff will work around the clock so votes can be counted on Election Day.
“We believe we have enough time and resources to do this,” he said.
The Republican, Democrat and Libertarian parties have collectively submitted 89 names of Tarrant County residents who can serve on the county’s ballot board.
Board members work in pairs, and each member must be from a different political party.
Pairs look at the returned mail-in ballots one at a time and, if both members agree that the ballot is in proper condition, the ballot is then ready to be counted. However, if, both members can’t agree on the condition of the ballot, the ballot is put aside so that a larger election board group can make a final decision on it.
Such disagreements are rare, Garcia said. So far, only 22 mail-in ballots have been rejected by the board, he said.
Board members can work in 12-hour shifts, including nights and weekends, if necessary to get the ballots processed, Garcia said.
County Judge Glen Whitley assured voters that the No. 1 priority is the integrity of the ballot. Members of the board will not rush through the process, he said. Whitley also stressed that the vendor is state-approved.
“I can tell you that many of those people have been doing this for many years,” Whitley said. “They are experienced and I trust them and they’re working very well together.”
The vendor that printed the ballots in question Tuesday is Runbeck Election Services Inc., which is based in Phoenix and was contracted in July to print the mail-in ballots for the Nov. 3 election.
Officials from Runbeck said in a statement released Tuesday afternoon that they were “concerned to learn that some Tarrant County ballots are not able to be scanned properly by Hart Intercivic tabulation machines, as Runbeck Election Services is a certified ballot printer for Hart Intercivic.”
“This election year alone we have printed nearly 100 million ballots, many of which have been the same type of ballot used in Tarrant County, without experiencing any scanning issues,” the statement said. “Runbeck Election Services is working with Tarrant County elections officials to investigate if the problem is printing-related or scanning-related. Once the investigation is complete, we will offer our support to all partners and vendors involved to determine the appropriate next steps to ensure that all ballots are properly tabulated.”