Capital Graphics Inc. - Hutto
Capital Graphics Inc. - Hutto
Written by Patrick Brendel Friday, 10 October 2008
Based out of the top floor of his mother’s decorating business in Hutto, Chris Widmer’s Capital Graphics Inc. provides elections supplies to about half of Texas’ 254 counties.
The three-employee company (including Widmer) can produce just about everything needed to hold an election, whether it be for early-, Election Day-, mail-in- or military voting, he said.
“There’s a very, very small handful of people that provide those forms. The Secretary of State mandates exactly what’s on that form, and they have a short list of printers that are certified to do that,” Widmer said.
In addition to elections materials, the company provides local government entities around Texas with documents and supplies needed to run their daily operations. Products include docket sheets for courts, marriage licenses, binders for books and records, bound books and legal forms.
The company also designs forms for businesses and professionals, such as invoices, purchase orders, delivery tickets, brochures, letterhead and envelopes, banking and operational forms, doctor/clinic bills, labels and prescription pads.
Widmer’s father, Howard, started the printing arm of the company about 20 years ago after leaving the upper management of the Austin firm Hart Graphics. In 1991, his dad moved his printing company out of his home and into its current location. Widmer joined the company in 1995, and today his father is slowly transitioning toward retirement. Together, Widmer and his father have several decades of printing and elections experience.
Despite all the paper Capital Graphics produces, a major portion of its revenue is derived from assisting governments and companies entering the electronic age. The company provides equipment, training and after-sales support to counties and municipalities looking to digitize paper records that often date back a century or more.
Once the records are scanned, a software feature called “optical character recognition” allows users to search through the electronic archive according to phrases, words or individual letters and numbers, Widmer said.
The company modified its techniques for governments and applied them to title companies, a surprising number of which keep track of millions of records using handwritten index cards. In 2004, after building a couple of title companies from scratch for clients, Widmer started his own title company in Gonzales, called Apache Title Company. He opened a second title company in Cuero in 2006 and continues to act as a consultant for other title companies.
Now, Widmer estimates that the title company branch of Capital Graphics makes up about 25 percent of total business, with government and elections supplies providing 60 percent and commercial printing the remainder.
Help America Vote Act of 2002
Howard Widmer, founder of Capital Graphics Inc., said the most significant changes to the elections material business occurred with the passage of the Help America Vote Act of 2002, or HAVA.
HAVA did three basic things:
- created the Elections Assistance Commission to serve as a clearinghouse for elections administration information,
- provided funds to states to improve election administration and replace outdated voting systems, and
- created minimum standards for states’ elections administrators to follow.
HAVA resulted in the replacement of most paper-based voting machines (like lever and punch card systems) with electronic machines (like touch-screen systems) to ensure that disabled persons can vote without assistance.
Sources: U.S. Department of Justice, U.S. Elections Assistance Commission, National Conference of State Legislators
Capital Graphics Inc., 103 East St., 846-1100, www.capitalgraphicstexas.com
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