Senator Eliot Shapleigh - El Paso, Texas

A three-judge panel has ruled that Dallas County election officials violated federal law when they did not inform the Department of Justice about changes in the way straight-party votes are counted on electronic voting machines.

The judges determined that the county did not get proper approval from the Department of Justice to use the county's current machines. They granted an injunction requested by the Texas Democratic Party to halt use of the machines in Dallas until they get Justice Department clearance.

The ruling stems from a federal lawsuit filed by the party last year after a close recount favored the Republican candidate in a crucial statehouse race. Democrat Bob Romano lost the District 105 race in Dallas to incumbent Linda Harper-Brown by 19 votes.

The Texas Democratic Party sued Dallas County, claiming that election officials here failed to notify Justice Department officials about "emphasis" votes that don't get counted when people vote straight-party on electronic machines.

Before the county went to iVotronic voting machines in 1998, people who voted a straight-party ticket and then selected a candidate within that party were thought to be emphasizing how much they wanted that particular candidate, and the vote for that person counted.

That changed when the county switched to electronic voting machines. Now, when someone votes straight-party and also selects a candidate in that party, the machine deselects that candidate.

The result is a no-vote in that particular contest.

Leon Carter, Dallas County's attorney in the lawsuit, said he could not comment without the permission of the Commissioners Court. County Judge Jim Foster could not be reached for comment late Monday.

Texas Democratic Party Chairman Boyd Richie, in a statement Monday, called the ruling a "victory for Texas voters and their right to cast a vote that counts."

"Given the likelihood that today's ruling will impact other Texas counties, it is now time for the secretary of state to stop defending the indefensible and require the manufacturers to address the serious defects in the way these machines count straight-ticket votes," Richie said. "Should the secretary of state refuse to act, the Texas Democratic Party will take whatever steps are necessary to ensure these machines count every citizen's vote accurately.

Randall Dillard, a spokesman for the secretary of state's office, which oversees elections, said his office is studying the ruling and trying to determine how many counties use voting systems similar to Dallas'.

Chad Dunn, attorney for the Democratic Party, said that 150 to 200 counties use such electronic voting machines.

He said he hopes the ruling will cause the secretary of state to ask the manufacturers of the voting machines to "do a simple reprogramming" that will take the guesswork out of a voter's intention.

"This has come up every election cycle," Dunn said. "There's no sense in it being so confusing."

He suggested that the machine could warn voters that they have decided not to vote in a contest when they punch a candidate's name after already having selected straight-party. Or the review screen after the voter is finished should clearly show contests where there are no selections, and not just say the ballot is being recorded as a straight-party vote.

The panel of federal judges, including District Judges Jorge Solis and Reed O'Connor in Dallas and appellate Judge Edward Prado of the Fifth Circuit in New Orleans, made their ruling last week but released it Monday.