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Partial Manual Count – May 9 Uniform Election

To: All Cities, School Districts, and Other Political Subdivisions
From: Keith Ingram, Director of Elections
Date: May 6, 2015
RE: Partial Manual Count – May 9 Uniform Election

This is your official notification that the partial manual count will NOT be waived for the May 9, 2015 Uniform Elections and ONLY any resulting runoffs will be waived. Under Section 127.201(a) of the Texas Election Code (the “Code”), the general custodian of election records in an election in which an electronic voting system is used is required to conduct a manual count in one percent of the election precincts or in three election precincts, whichever is greater. Although the Secretary of State may waive the partial manual count under Section 127.201(f) of the Code, it has been determined not to do so for the May 9, 2015 elections.

Before you begin please read the following important information to determine if you need to complete a partial manual count:

  1. You are only required to conduct a partial manual count if you used optical scan electronic voting systems to count your ballots. An optical scan system would be one that has paper ballots, which the voter marks, and then is scanned by the electronic voting system to tabulate the votes. For example, an M-100 by ES&S or an e-Scan by Hart.

    If you used DREs (direct recording electronic) for your election, you do not need to conduct a partial manual count. Instead, you will simply log into the system, and click “Yes” when you get to this question: “Did your jurisdiction use only a DRE and/or hand count all ballots on election day?”  Once you click “Yes,” and confirm, the system will inform you that you have completed the report.

    If you used both DREs and optical scan ballots, you will only conduct the partial manual count on the optical scan ballots.

    If you used hand counted paper ballots for your election, you do not need to conduct a partial manual count. Instead, you will simply log into the system, and click “Yes” when you get to this question: “Did your jurisdiction use only a DRE and/or hand count all ballots on election day?” Once you click “Yes,” and confirm, the system will inform you that you have completed the report.
  1. If you cancelled all of your elections, you do not need to conduct a partial manual count. As with above, you simply need to log in, and answer “Yes” to this question: “Was your election canceled?” Once you click “Yes,” and confirm, the system will inform you that you have completed the report. However, you will also need to complete the precinct-by-precinct report to inform our office that your election was cancelled and that you have no results to report. (Please see our memorandum on precinct-by-precinct reports.)

Information for reporting your results of the partial manual count, or that your entity is waived due to cancellation and/or use of DREs/hand counted paper ballots:

  1. Access the online reporting system

  2. Your temporary password was emailed to you.  If you need your password, or have problems with your password, please contact Monica Brown by email or phone at 1.800.252.VOTE (8683).

Information for those entities that MUST complete a partial manual count:

  1. If you contracted with your county for your election, they may assist you in completing the partial manual count.

  2. You must conduct the partial manual count on ballots cast in one percent of all election day precincts or three election precincts, whichever is greater. You will choose which precincts to count at random.  If you had fewer than three precincts, you will just manually count those precincts.

  3. You are not required to petition a district judge for permission to retrieve the paper or electronic ballots, since this is a procedure that is required by law.  At the time you have designated to begin the manual count, you should arrange access to the ballots for the selected precincts. Following the manual count, all election material shall be re-secured and returned to the appropriate authority.

  4. You will only conduct the partial manual count on election day ballots. You do not need to conduct a partial manual count on early voting ballots.

  5. You must begin the count no later than 72 hours after the polls close (7:00 p.m. on May 12, 2015), and the count must be completed no later than the 21st day after election day (May 30, 2015).  If more than one electronic voting system is used for a precinct, the manual count must include counts from all systems.  You may, but are not required to, hire outside help to assist you in this task.

  6. Any discrepancies found between electronic and manual count totals should be noted in the discrepancy field provided online.

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