Texas Election Code Title 8, Chapter 127 - Processing Electronic Voting System Results

SUBCHAPTER A ESTABLISHMENT AND ORGANIZATION OF CENTRAL COUNTING STATION

• Texas Section 127.001 - Establishment Of Central Counting Station
  (a) The authority adopting an electronic voting system for use in an election may establish, in accordance with this subchapter, one or more central counting...
• Texas Section 127.002 - Counting Station Manager
  (a) The authority establishing a central counting station shall appoint a manager of the station. Except as otherwise provided by this section, the eligibility requirements...
• Texas Section 127.003 - Tabulation Supervisor
  (a) The authority establishing a central counting station shall appoint a tabulation supervisor of the station. Except as otherwise provided by this section, the eligibility...
• Texas Section 127.004 - Assistants To Tabulation Supervisor
  (a) The tabulation supervisor may appoint one or more assistants, each of whom must be approved by the authority establishing the central counting station. (b)...
• Texas Section 127.005 - Presiding Judge Of Counting Station
  (a) The authority appointing the presiding judges to serve in an election shall appoint a presiding judge of each central counting station operating in the...
• Texas Section 127.006 - Counting Station Clerks
  (a) Both the manager and the presiding judge may appoint clerks to serve at the central counting station. (b) Except as otherwise provided by this...

SUBCHAPTER C SEALED BALLOT BOXES

• Texas Section 127.007 - Plan For Counting Station Operation
  (a) The manager shall establish and implement a written plan for the orderly operation of the central counting station. (b) The plan required under this...
• Texas Section 127.061 - Sealed Ballot Boxes Required
  Sealed ballot boxes shall be used to deliver electronic system ballots from the polling place to the central counting station in accordance with this subchapter....
• Texas Section 127.063 - Design Of Ballot Box
  A sealed ballot box used under this subchapter must be equipped with a lock to prevent opening the box without a key and designed and...
• Texas Section 127.064 - Seals For Ballot Boxes
  (a) A seal shall be provided for each ballot box used under this subchapter. (b) The seals for the boxes must be serially numbered for...
• Texas Section 127.065 - Sealing Ballot Box; Delivery To Polling Place
  (a) An adequate number of sealed ballot boxes shall be provided for each polling place at which sealed boxes are to be used. (b) Before...
• Texas Section 127.066 - Sealing Deposit Slot; Delivery Of Sealed Ballot Box To Counting Station
  (a) Immediately on completion of voting at a polling place using sealed ballot boxes or, if the presiding judge inactivates a sealed ballot box before...
• Texas Section 127.067 - Disposition Of Election Records
  (a) An election officer shall place the precinct election records in the appropriate envelopes or other containers provided for that purpose. (b) Except as provided...
• Texas Section 127.068 - Receiving Sealed Ballot Box At Counting Station
  (a) On receipt of a sealed ballot box, the presiding judge of the central counting station or the judge's designee shall give a signed receipt...

SUBCHAPTER D TESTING TABULATING EQUIPMENT

• Texas Section 127.069 - Sorting Ballots
  (a) After opening a sealed ballot box, the presiding judge of the central counting station shall sort the damaged ballots, the ballots containing write-in votes,...
• Texas Section 127.091 - Test Of Tabulating Equipment Required
  The automatic tabulating equipment used for counting ballots at a central counting station shall be tested as provided by this subchapter. Acts 1985, 69th Leg.,...
• Texas Section 127.092 - Testing Authorities
  The programmer, tabulation supervisor, counting station manager, and presiding judge of the central counting station shall prepare and conduct the test jointly. Acts 1985, 69th...
• Texas Section 127.093 - Times For Conducting Test
  (a) The test shall be conducted three times for each election. (b) The first test shall be conducted at least 48 hours before the automatic...
• Texas Section 127.094 - Design Of Test
  (a) The test must be designed to determine whether the automatic tabulating equipment accurately counts ballots and otherwise functions properly. (b) A group of test...
• Texas Section 127.095 - Determining Success Of Test
  (a) A test is successful if a perfect count of the test ballots is obtained and the automatic tabulating equipment otherwise functions properly during the...
• Texas Section 127.096 - Conduct Of First Test
  (a) The custodian of the automatic tabulating equipment shall publish notice of the date, hour, and place of the test conducted under Section 127.093(b) in...
• Texas Section 127.097 - Conduct Of Second Test
  (a) The automatic tabulating equipment may not be used to count ballots voted in the election until a test conducted under Section 127.093(c) is successful....
• Texas Section 127.098 - Conduct Of Third Test; Void Ballot Count
  (a) If the initial test conducted under Section 127.093(d) is unsuccessful, the count of ballots voted in the election obtained with the automatic tabulating equipment...
• Texas Section 127.099 - Security Of Test Materials
  (a) On completing each test, the presiding judge shall place the test ballots and other test materials in a container provided for that purpose and...

SUBCHAPTER E PROCESSING RESULTS AT CENTRAL COUNTING STATION

• Texas Section 127.100 - Custody Of Test Materials
  (a) The presiding judge is the custodian of the test materials until they are delivered under Subsection (b). (b) The sealed container holding the test...
• Texas Section 127.121 - Programmer For Tabulating Equipment
  (a) If the automatic tabulating equipment to be used for counting ballots at a central counting station requires the preparation of a program, the authority...
• Texas Section 127.122 - Approval Of Program
  If a person other than the tabulation supervisor is appointed as the programmer, the program shall be submitted to the tabulation supervisor for approval not...
• Texas Section 127.123 - Security Of Program
  (a) The tabulation supervisor shall protect the program prepared for the automatic tabulating equipment installed at the central counting station from tampering and unauthorized use,...
• Texas Section 127.1231 - Security Of Automatic Tabulating Equipment
  (a) Except as provided by Subsection (b), the general custodian of election records shall ensure that any computer terminals located outside the central counting station...
• Texas Section 127.1232 - Security Of Voted Ballots
  The general custodian of election records shall post a guard to ensure the security of ballot boxes containing voted ballots throughout the period of tabulation...
• Texas Section 127.124 - Early Processing Of Ballots
  (a) The authority adopting an electronic voting system for use in an election in which ballots are processed at a central counting station may provide...
• Texas Section 127.125 - Preparing Ballots For Automatic Counting
  (a) The manager of a central counting station shall have the ballots prepared for automatic counting. (b) The manager shall have the ballots examined to...
• Texas Section 127.126 - Duplicating Ballots
  (a) The manager of a central counting station may have ballots duplicated for automatic counting as provided by this section. (b) The valid portion of...
• Texas Section 127.127 - Operating Equipment And Handling Ballots Restricted
  A person other than the tabulation supervisor and the assistants to the tabulation supervisor may not operate the automatic tabulating equipment or handle the ballots...
• Texas Section 127.128 - Ballots Tabulated By Precinct
  The automatically counted ballots shall be separately tabulated according to election precinct. Acts 1985, 69th Leg., ch. 211, Sec. 1, eff. Jan. 1, 1986.
• Texas Section 127.129 - Correction Of Results After Equipment Malfunction
  The secretary of state shall prescribe procedures for correcting results after the discovery of an equipment malfunction that caused the results to be incorrect. Acts...
• Texas Section 127.130 - Manual Counting
  (a) Electronic system ballots that are not to be counted automatically and the write-in votes not counted at the polling places shall be counted manually...
• Texas Section 127.1301 - Tallying, Tabulating, And Reporting Centrally Counted Optical Scan Ballot Undervotes And Overvotes
  In an election using centrally counted optical scan ballots, the undervotes and overvotes on those ballots shall be tallied, tabulated, and reported by race and...
• Texas Section 127.131 - Preparing Returns
  (a) After the automatic counting of ballots for each precinct is completed, the presiding judge of the central counting station shall prepare the election returns...
• Texas Section 127.1311 - Announcing Unofficial Results
  (a) Except as provided by Subsection (b), unofficial election results shall be released as soon as they are available after the polls close. (b) The...

SUBCHAPTER F PROCESSING RESULTS IN SYSTEM WITHOUT CENTRALIZED COUNTING

• Texas Section 127.132 - Disposition Of Ballots, Returns, And Other Records
  (a) The presiding judge of a central counting station shall distribute the voted ballots, election returns, and other election records from the counting station to...
• Texas Section 127.151 - Applicability Of Subchapter; Procedures Prescribed By Secretary Of State
  (a) This subchapter applies to the processing of election results in electronic voting systems that do not entail the counting of ballots at central locations...
• Texas Section 127.152 - Test Of Tabulating Equipment Required
  (a) Each unit of automatic tabulating equipment shall be tested, using all applicable ballot formats, in accordance with the testing procedures prescribed by Subchapter D...
• Texas Section 127.153 - Test Repeated If Equipment Malfunctions
  If the tabulating of ballots must be restarted because of an equipment or system malfunction or any other reason, the tests required by Section 127.152...
• Texas Section 127.154 - Identification Numbers Required For Equipment
  (a) Each unit of automatic tabulating equipment must have a permanent identification number. Each part of that equipment that contains the ballot tabulation must also...
• Texas Section 127.155 - Presiding Judge To Sign Tape
  (a) The presiding judge shall sign any tape containing the ballot tabulation that is produced by the automatic tabulating equipment. (b) The presiding judge shall...
• Texas Section 127.156 - Tabulation At Central Counting Station If Discrepancy Exists In Ballot Totals
  If a discrepancy of more than three exists between the number of ballots recorded on the ballot and seal certificate and the number of ballots...

SUBCHAPTER H ADDITIONAL COUNT OF ELECTRONIC VOTING SYSTEM BALLOTS

• Texas Section 127.157 - Processing Irregularly Marked Ballots
  (a) This section applies only to a voting system that allows voters to deposit the ballots directly into a unit of automatic tabulating equipment. (b)...
• Texas Section 127.201 - Partial Count Of Electronic Voting System Ballots By General Custodian
  (a) To ensure the accuracy of the tabulation of electronic voting system results, the general custodian of election records shall conduct a manual count of...
• Texas Section 127.202 - Count Of Electronic Voting System Ballots By Secretary Of State
  (a) To ensure the accuracy of the tabulation of electronic voting system results, the secretary of state or the secretary's designee may conduct a manual...

Last modified: September 28, 2016