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Local
THE BATTALION
THURSDAY, MARCH 5, 1981
State officials cite flaws in Texas voting procedures
Photo by Steve Kennedy
■ Texas Secretary of State George Strake was address the 9th Annual County and District
I in College Station Wednesday along with as- Clerks’ Seminar,
fjsistant Secretary of State David Herdon to
Speech to focus on
I space war weapons
Dr. Robert S. Cooper, former assistant director of the Defense
| ‘Department’s Space and Advanced Systems Program, will speak at 8
p.m. in Rudder Theater on “The Weapons of Space Warfare.”
I His speech, sponsored by MSC Great Issues, will focus on the use of
| lasers in space warfare.
Cooper recently served as director of NASA’s Goddard Space Flight
Center where he was involved in programs including the Landsat
photographic satellite, the space telescope and the Tiros and Nimbus
weather satellites.
Prior to his service in the Defense Department, Cooper was head of
the optics division at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and
was an assistant professor of electrical engineering at MIT.
He currently serves as a member of the Defense Science Board and
ds a Defense Department consultant.
Admission to the speech is 50 cents for students and $1 for others.
By NANCY FLOECK
Battalion Reporter
Inadequate Texas voting proce
dures should be corrected to pro
vide citizens with an efficient elec
toral system, two Texas officials
told about 300 county clerks
Wednesday morning.
County clerks and state officials
are responsible for correcting
them, said George Strake, secret
ary of state. And David Herdon,
assistant secretary of state,
agreed.
“We have a goal in common —
protecting the rights of each and
every individual in the state of
Texas,” Strake said at the 9th
annual County and District
Clerks’ Seminar.
Speaking at the Ramada Inn in
College Station, Strake said sever
al areas of the electoral process in
Texas are under attack for being
inefficient and delaying the voting
process.
He said the accuracy of voter
registration lists is a major factor in
the state’s electoral efficiency.
Herdon agreed and said that so
cial security numbers or driver
license numbers on voter registra
tion cards would help reduce reg
istration duplications and frauds.
He said about 75 percent of vo
ters voluntarily put their social
security numbers on their cards.
Federal law prohibits requiring
voters to record their social secur
ity numbers.
Driver license numbers or De
partment of Public Safety identifi
cation numbers could be used for
the other 25 percent of voters,
Herdon said.
“It would be a pretty simple
means of catching duplicate reg
istration,” he said.
The allocation of voting
machines in Texas precincts is also
under attack, the two men said.
Sixteen counties, about 50 per
cent of the voting population, use
these machines, Strake said. He
said a formula for allocating the
machines is being considered in
the legislature.
Herdon said the formula is de
signed to provide a flexible, objec
tive guideline for allocating
machines among precincts.
“It should do a lot to eliminate
the criticism and pressure on you
clerks to allocate machines,” he
said.
Strake also said opposition to
the punch-card voting system has
grown since the November elec
tion, but two bills to ban them are
being revised in the Texas legisla
ture.
“I had nothing to do with any
legislation to ban that,” he said. “I
will not be a party to such a move. ”
The punch-cards are a financial
burden to some precincts and
must be carefully accounted for,
but when used properly, Strake
said, the system is highly effec
tive.
Strake said it is important that
state officials and county clerks
work together to devise long-
range solutions, not “simplistic,
quick fixes” to voting problems.
“We must not allow ourselves to
band-aid every little problem that
surfaces,” he said.
The clerks’ co-operation and in
put is necessary to create the most
perfect system man can construct,
he said.
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