Voter Barn Fire: All of Harris County's Machines Destroyed

weslinder · Aug 27, 2010

Didn't see this posted, figured it would be of interest here. Thankfully, no one was hurt and it doesn't look like it will affect the elections.

http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/metropolitan/7173960.html

All of Harris County's voting machines destroyed in 3-alarm north Houston fire
By CHRIS MORAN and DALE LEZON
Copyright 2010 Houston Chronicle
Aug. 27, 2010, 12:23PM

Harris County Clerk Beverly Kaufman this morning said she is confident of timely, clean elections in November, even as a fire that destroyed the county's entire inventory of 10,000 electronic voting machines still burned.

Kaufman urged voters to cast their ballots early to help the county cope with a possible shortage of equipment on election day.

"Because I don’t expect to have 10,000 pieces to work with, no matter what we do, I’m sure that we’re going to be putting on a full court press urging people to vote early," Kaufman said.

Kaufman said she expected that the fire in a county warehouse in the 600 block of Canino, in north Houston, has destroyed $30 million worth of equipment and caused another $10 million in damage to the building.

Kaufman hopes to cobble together a collection of voting machines through loans from other counties and replacement equipment from its vendor, she said. All five members of Commissioners Court contacted her this morning to pledge their support in helping her with the resources needed to stage a successful election in which early voting begins in just 52 days, she said.

Kaufman encouraged people to vote early in person or by mail.

"There is no doubt in my mind that we’re going to have a timely election here and that we’re going to take care of the voters," Kaufman said.

Houston Fire Department spokesman Patrick Trahan said arson investigators were at the scene of the fire, but no cause has been determined.

The three-alarm blaze started about 4:15 a.m. at the football field-size warehouse the county uses to store its election equipment. Firefighters extinguished the flames about four hours later.

No injuries were reported.

The county’s voting machines, including eSlate equipment, were stored at the nearly 27,000-square foot facility, county officials said.

Early voting begins Oct. 18. Election Day is Nov. 2.

Fire officials said a county animal control facility which houses animals is nearby, but that building was not involved in the fire and the animals were not in danger.

The massive flames lit up the sky for miles and could be seen from the Hardy Toll Road near Little York.
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rocketsjudoka · Aug 27, 2010

Just curious but does Harris co. use the Diebold machines?

rhadamanthus · Aug 27, 2010

weslinder · Aug 27, 2010

rocketsjudoka said:

Just curious but does Harris co. use the Diebold machines?
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I honestly don't know, but when I did election judge training, I was told that most of Texas uses the iVotronic machines.

Depressio · Aug 27, 2010

rhadamanthus said:

IT'S A CONSPIRACY!
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Hey, that's what the chron.com commenters are saying. They're always correct and the most educated of us all, right?

weslinder · Aug 27, 2010

rocketsjudoka said:

Just curious but does Harris co. use the Diebold machines?
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I looked it up. They use the Hart eSlate electronic machine.

thadeus · Aug 27, 2010

For all the jokes about this being a conspiracy - honestly speaking, that's the very first thing that popped into my mind:

- will the county buy all new machines from the SAME PEOPLE?

...and etc.,. imagine how much these machines cost.

Rashmon · Aug 27, 2010

How convenient...

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