Dallas County approves new Poll Pads for upcoming elections

DALLAS - Dallas County commissioners have approved new pollbooks called Poll Pads, which will be used in local elections.

They'll replace devices that melted down during the November election. 

What we know:

At Tuesday’s Dallas County Commissioners Court meeting, commissioners applauded how well and "seamless" the new pollbook tablets work with other parts of the vote-counting process.

The vendor, KNOWiNK, provided commissioners with a show-and-tell of the Poll Pads.

The new vendor replaces the previous vendor and their devices, which were decertified by the state after meltdowns in November's general election.

The clock is now ticking on getting the new polling equipment ready with early voting for the May elections just over a month away.

What they're saying:

"It's definitely more intuitive, more user-friendly," said Dallas County Deputy Elections Administrator Malissa Kouba. "Anybody who has walked through any kind of a check-in at a doctor's office or anything like that uses a similar tablet process. It's very simple."

Commissioners who tested the equipment last week agreed.

"We tried to trip it up but couldn't. So it was good," said Dallas County Judge Clay Jenkins.

"Regardless of the kind of ID, regardless of the skit to try to divert the election, the pollbook system responded," said Dallas County Commissioner John Wiley Price.

"There are a number of people in my district who are always concerned about having paper as opposed to computers involved in the voting system," said Dallas County Commissioner Andrew Sommerman. "Is there a paper product here?"

Kouba explained that once a voter has selected their choices, the ballot prints, and they can view it before placing it in the final machine, where votes are tabulated.

And while confident in the equipment, Price is concerned about the education.

"I want to be sure from KNOWiNK that they're training the technical people," he said.

"So we are doing that bringing out multiple people, which allows us to continue giving consistent coverage across all the different aspects that it takes to deploy," explained Dan Peters with the new vendor. "That includes training the trainers assisting with poll worker, training and dealing with technical training inside the warehouse, and best practices for setting up to make sure that it's as easy as possible."

What's next:

Voters get to practice on the new equipment beginning on April 2.