Texas 2020 General Election Audit: Procedural issues in Dallas

DALLAS — The Texas Secretary of State workplace has launched its ultimate report on the audit of the 2020 General Election, highlighting some procedural issues in North Texas. 

The workplace ordered a full forensic audit of the election for Collin, Dallas, Harris and Tarrant counties to “ensure that all Texas voters can have confidence in the elections systems in our state.”

Collin and Tarrant “represent the largest Republican-controlled” county governments in Texas, whereas Dallas and Harris “represent the largest Democratic-controlled” county governments, in keeping with the Secretary of State’s workplace. 

Monday’s launch was the second part in the ultimate evaluate of the 2020 presidential election. Phase one of many audit was accomplished final yr and located no substantial issues and some discrepancies.

In Collin County, the audit reported that it “proved to be the model of how to run elections in Texas.” 

“While not
excellent, the county’s information administration, document high quality, and procedures had been
unmatched,” the audit mentioned. 

The solely discovering from the audit the report shared that was out of the strange was that “21 voters received ballots by mail who were not entitled to vote by mail.” 

In Dallas County, the audit discovered that it had issues with its digital ballot books and misplaced a number of “experienced” workers members that contributed to different issues in the final election. 

Some of the important thing findings from the audit included: 

• Dallas County’s ballot guide issues created “phantom voters.” The Secretary of State mentioned when a voter would examine in, the digital ballot guide would examine in a special voter, which affected 188 voters. 
• The audit additionally discovered that the county misplaced 318 provisional votes that had been found in February 2021, after the election had been licensed. The workplace mentioned that 63 of the 318 discovered “would have counted if processed correctly.” 
• According to the audit, vote historical past information discovered that 21 voters had acquired credit score for voting by mail however their unopened ballots had been discovered in “sealed carrier envelopes.” 
• Dallas County supplied 4 sources of information displaying mail poll statistics that differed from the canvass

In Harris County, the audit reported that it had “very serious issues in the handling of electronic media.” 

The audit’s key findings included: 

• In not less than 14 polling areas, cellular poll containers containing 184,999
  forged vote information included in the tally didn’t have correct chain of custody
• Harris County didn’t have a list of its warehoused information for the
  2020 General Election

In Tarrant County, the audit reported it administered a “quality, transparent election.” 

Findings from the audit included: 

• Tarrant County’s digital media containing mail ballots had been named
  inconsistently
• Election employees weren’t constant in “printing zero tapes prior to the opening of polls.” 

“The 2020 General Election, administered through the COVID-19 pandemic, introduced
the counties with extraordinary challenges that possible led to procedural errors,” the audit said. “These
challenges, mixed with staffing shortages, strained native election officers.” 

The audit mentioned issues discovered in the 2020 election had been unlikely to happen once more in the longer term as a consequence of laws made after, together with Senate Bill 1, which tightened state election legal guidelines.

According to the workplace, the audit consisted of analyzing knowledge on a number of aspects of the election, together with: 

• Polling location and tabulation knowledge to carry out fundamental reconciliation of the information
  on as many ranges as doable from ballot guide check-ins by way of the canvass
  course of, and all factors in between, to make sure that the variety of voters
  accepted matched the variety of ballots forged
• The bodily safety of election tools
• The adequacy of the counties’ coaching supplies 
• The ballot-by-mail course of in element to make sure that ballots had been issued and returned appropriately
• The provisional balloting course of
• Certain points of voter registration, together with whether or not or not voters had been
  registered at non-residential addresses
• Complaints in regards to the 2020 General Election acquired by the 4 counties
  and the Texas Secretary of State

The audit mentioned the Forensic Audit Division was capable of evaluate loads of knowledge however was at instances restricted by the information the counties saved, as not each county saved the identical knowledge or in the identical method as others. 

The audit comes after the state’s high election official introduced earlier this month that he was stepping down. 

Scott introduced on Dec. 5 that he was stepping down as Secretary of State to return to his non-public authorized observe. Scott was appointed to the place on Oct. 21, 2021. 

Gov. Greg Abbott introduced his intention to nominate State Sen. Jane Nelson (R-Flower Mound) as the subsequent Secretary of State. 

To view the report, visit this website.