So, I'll go ahead and call the July 15th Taran County Election Board meeting to order. The first order of business is we're actually going to take things out of order and we'll go ahead and start with the public comments. So, any members from the public with items that are
commenting on items of the agenda, we'll start there. I believe I have all the forms if you signed up. And I'm just going to go in the order they were handed to me. So, first up, Linda Ford. >> Okay.
>> Okay. Amy Super. >> Do we get the grandkids as well? >> And we'll be limiting everybody's time to the three minutes. >> Great. I'm going to start with my asks and if I have time then I'll go back and explain to you why. Um my ask from this board is that you provide me with timely
access to specific individuals with comprehensive legal expertise about our election laws and the legal extent of my authority as a presiding judge. Providing this to me should cement in the minds of all the ballot board members this presiding judge's singular authority within the ballot board as well as my authority to create and
enforce internal policies, printed standard operating procedures, and any internal organizing forms I determined to be necessary. In addition, legal enforcable consequences for members who choose to continue disregarding my authority must also be established in order to minimize the continued
escalation of internal disruptions which have contributed to negatively impacting the operational efficiency of the ballot board. I must be able to directly call or email someone who can quickly respond to provide clarity of any issue which requires concise interpretation of applicable Texas election law in order
for me to competently and efficiently lead this political entity which is comprised of a group of politically diverse group. I feel confident that our elections administrator and have staff within the early voting department will continue to be available in assisting me should I need clarification on Tarant
County election specific internal operations which impact how we operate in the most efficient manner moving forward. Do we have a time clock somewhere? Don't see it. I can't see it. >> You've got about a minute. >> Okay. Well, left. I'm happy to pass out a copy of this to explain why, but essentially in chapter 32, you have a
very very clearly defined list of power and responsibilities of the presiding judge on election day. Chapter 87 addresses the ballot board. There is no such clearly defined role and that makes things a little bit difficult in the minds of people for how to proceed. Also, when I began a little over a year
ago, we have no printed internal processes, like a step-by-step process for how you do everything. There is an SOS class you can take online. There is a guide book, but those are broad-based state applicable. Taran County has its own voting system, its own internal software, which we have to interface
with. And so, the ability to have printed materials makes us be able to operate in a manner that's more efficient. But I have copies of this which explain that in detail to you. Be happy to give it to you. Thank you for um consideration and for the opportunity to serve and for abiding my
grandchildren being here. Thank >> Amy. >> Yes. >> If you want you could give a copy of your statements to Ruth. >> All right. Next up we've got Tammy Layman. Hello, I'm Tammy Layman. As a CPA, a certified fraud examiner, an election
judge, and a poll watcher, I'm trained to look for weaknesses. I can't help it if I see something in a process, uh, I I make note of it and then I bring it forward for a solution. I have a solution for you today. I'm asking the board to require the use of serialized
seals that are large enough that will accommodate up to four signatures. This is required by the Texas election code. In fact, the law requires the seal itself needs to be signed, not a seal
certificate. Our current zip tie seals are simply too small to hold the required si signatures by election workers and poll watchers. This creates a weakness to chain of custody, especially since ballot bags are transported between polling places,
rally station, and quorum without continuous video monitoring. And this concern is real. In fact, a well-known election integrity activist, Dr. Dr. Laura Presley, some of you may know her. She testified in June at before the Texas
Senate State Affairs Committee that she personally signed a seal on a ballot box as a poll watcher during the primary. A few hours later, she saw the ballot box at central count. Its seal had the same serial number, but it was
missing her signature. Serialized seals that are signed are one of the few safeguards available when ballot bags are out of public view. Larger sealized seals are inexpensive
and when containing signatures will secure our voted ballots far more than the current procedures. Election law sets a minimum standard. Taran County should at least comply with this minimum standard by using
serialized seals that are signed on all ballot boxes. And I have a handout for each one of you that contains the two laws that I refer to, a vendor who can supply these seals that would comply with the law, and a link to Mrs.
Presley's testimony. And I can also email that link to you as well. And I want to thank you in advance for adopting this. I'm very uh optimistic. >> Who do I give this to? >> You should give a copy to Ruth here.
>> All right. Next up, we've got Karen Weisman. Good afternoon and thank you for letting us do this and especially for putting it at the front of the agenda. We appreciate it. Um, I would like to speak to election supplies, specifically the
blank ballot stock used in our elections. I served on the logic and accuracy testing team and the postelection handc count audit team for several elections, and it is concerning that we continue to see a half a dozen
or more different types of ballot paper used for a single polling location. The audit team frequently comments that it is unusual and disturbing. The yellowed ballot stock is of particular concern, yet it continues to appear election
after election. The Texas election code section 127.094 states that the test ballots must be printed on the same stock as the official ballots for the elections. Yet, the testing is typically done only on
one type of ballot stock. Uh, Grock described the situation in Tarant County as a red flag and suspicious if the various paper styles are also missing security features like watermarks and preprinted serial numbers, which we
don't have, or if poor chain of custody and lack of audits that reconcile ballot stock and unexplained excess value volumes of ballot stock exist. Um, in addition, the HART Inner Civic website
states that and the contract also state that using nonoptimal ballot stock could increase miss speeds, jams, scanning errors, or produce a large a lower image quality and the liability. Let's see. And the
heart contract section 5.3.1 states heart disclaims and customer releases HART from any liability associated with the use of unauthorized paper including any claim associated with inaccurate vote tabulations. So, I
would like to request that we follow best practices and do adopt the use of a single style of ballot stock with a watermark of consistent thickness and color and ideally that has preprinted
serial numbers. Thank you. >> All right, next up we've got Jenny Blount. Good morning. My name is Jenny Blunt and I am a voter um and a taxpayer and a ballot board member and I'm I'm happy to
do all of those things. What I'm here to talk about today is chapter 19 funds of the election code. This is a a not very well-known part of the election code and it allows for ca counties to submit reimbursement for uh activities that
support voter registration. Okay. And it's pretty broad. It can be spent on equipment for voter registration. It can be even be spent on a temporary person to come help the voter registar. Well, what I have seen from a PI I did from
the uh SOS is that a lot of the money is spent on training, all types of training, not necessarily voter registration. So, I'm not opposed to training. In fact, I think it'd be great if our presiding judge and alternate judge of the ballot board went
to training, especially on election law. But I think these funds could be spent for the purpose that they were originally designed and that is to help clean up our voter roles and make sure our voter roles are accurate. We have
about 250 volunteers in Tarant County that are looking through the voter roles and finding uh things that need to be edited, dead people, moved people, that kind of thing. and and they're, you know, they're happy volunteers, but if the money is there for that purpose, uh
it is my recommendation that we go ahead and use it that way. So, just in 2024, the money that uh Tarant County received was close to $500,000. So, half a million. And I think even though, like I said, training is awesome, let's see if
we can maybe focus more on using that money to make sure our voter roles are tiptop. Thank you. Appreciate it. Next up, Tammy Grantham. >> Hello, I'm Tammy Grantham. Um, during the most recent municipal election while
serving on the early voting ballot board, we experienced some extreme slowdowns with the system that we used to process the mail ballots. Tasks that normally should have taken us approximately 60 seconds were taking as long as six minutes. to complete this
significantly reduced productivity. It increased frustration among the ballot board members and it raised concerns about the additional cost to the Tarant County taxpayers since we are getting paid with the upcoming general election expected to involve a much higher volume of mail ballots and additional ballot
board members accessing the system simultaneously. I am requesting that a comprehensive plan be developed and implemented to prevent these issues from reoccurring. Election administration is governed by strict statutory deadlines that must be met and it is essential that the technology supporting the
ballot process is capable of handling the anticipated workload efficiently and reliably. I respectfully request that the elections department identify the cause of the previous system performance issues and implement any necessary hardware, software or network
improvements well in advance of the November election. The November general election will have substantially more ballots, uh, more ballot board members working simultaneously. And if these system performance issues are not addressed before then, the consequences could be far more serious. Our election
workers are committed to serving the public with accuracy, integrity, and efficiency. They deserve technology that will support those efforts rather than creating unnecessary obstacles. The voters of Tarant County and the taxpayers who fund our elections deserve confidence that the system used to administrate the elections are reliable,
capable, and prepared before the voting begins. Thank you for your time. >> All right. Next up, we've got Brenda Helmer, >> election administrator, honorable judge, and election commissioners. My name is Brenda Helmer. I'm on the ballot board.
This is my sixth year. My concern is for equipment election integrity. So, I spoke December 19th this last year at the public hearing for voting system examination for heart inner civic. That
was down in Austin. It was the Friday before Christmas. That was special. So, um, I have limited time, so I'm just going to give you the records that Andrew Apple made about Hart Varity
Vanguard election voting system. He was speaking on October 17, 2025. So, if I may, these are not my words, these are his. So, Andrew W. Apple is the heart expert. So, I'm limited on time and so I'm just
going to give you some pertinent highlights. He is the expert and his conclusions and explanations are based on the meeting that he had. It's a three-day meeting in Austin September 16 to 18, 2025. So, all this is public information.
So he says a system may not be as accurate or as secure as its designers believe it to be. Additionally, computer programs may have bugs, unintentional
that might lead to miscounting votes. Computer systems may have security vulnerabilities, flaws that allow a malicious attacker to make the system miscount votes in favor of the attacker's preferred candidate.
Their expert believes, this is from him, that even with state-of-the-art design and security practices, we can never be 100% sure that the software in the voting system is accurate or even perfectly secure. This is normally
achieved the security via hand recounts or risk limiting paper ballot audits. So regarding the QR codes, voting systems which votes are represented by barcodes or QR optical
scanners read votes from barcodes. They don't read the human readable text. They pose a grave security concern because they make it impossible for the voter to verify that the votes on their paper
ballot are cast properly or accurately. So finally he says that this equipment this varity heart system cannot defend against errors or cyber fraud in the optical scanner itself. So in closing,
state of Texas relies on the expert from heart for the expert from heart in the expert of heart. Relying on heart only. So this is unacceptable. It kind of is circular but ideally and I know
this is probably too big for the board. >> And three minutes is up. >> Precinct voting. Put a ding ding timer. >> All right, up next we have Donna Collins. Thank you for this opportunity. I am a resident here in Fort Worth. I am a
voter. I am a volunteer poll watcher. I have been a poll worker and I've been worked on the ballot board. And I like that because it gives me a big picture of the whole election process. Um, one of the things that I wanted to highlight, this is my pink envelope that I that I store my ballot as a judge, as
an election judge. I store all of my supply, my paperwork from that particular election in this. And it says on here that I keep it until 1:30 2029. All of these forms that we use while we're processing the election are in
duplicates. So that's how I have a copy and elections has a copy. The one thing though, when I go and turn in my equipment at um a rally station or a quorum, I get this as a receipt. It doesn't even have my polling location on it. This is the only receipt I get about
my um supplies that I turn in. I would like to suggest as a solution the the form that Tarant County gets be processed in duplicates so that the judge may have what they actually turned in a a documentation of what materials
the election judge turns in at the rally station instead of just this little receipt. I'm sorry I didn't bring copies, but I think Clint, you know what I'm talking about. >> Thank you. Thank you. >> All right, up next we've got Jennifer James.
Hello. Good afternoon. Uh, having served on the early voting ballot board, I've seen firsthand how even small inconsistencies in envelope design affect the speed and effectiveness of ballot review. With that, I'd like to address what may seem like a minor
administrative issue, but one that has a very real impact on the efficiency of how uh vote by mail carrier envelopes are processed. Um I'm bringing this to your attention today because it did happen in the middle of the last election that we um had. So, uh the
early boarding the early voting ballot board reviews thousands of mail ballots under strict timelines and according to procedures established by the Texas election code. To do that effectively, board members rely on consistency. When identifying information appears at the
top of the envelope one day and the bottom the next, or when the layout changes, which is what happened from one printing to another, it interrupts that process. Every unnecessary variation force election workers to stop, reorient themselves, and spend additional time
locating the information needed to complete the review. While those delays may seem insignificant on a single envelope, they become substantial when multiplied across thousands of ballots. The result is slower processing, additional labor, and increased costs that are ultimately paid by the
taxpayers of Tarant County. It's not a request to change election law or compromise security. It's simply a request for consistent administrative practices. Standardizing the placement of information on mail ballot envelopes would improve efficiency, reduce unnecessary delays, and help ensure that
the early voting ballot board can perform its duties as effectively and economically as possible. I respectfully ask the board to make envelope printing a priority moving forward. Small operational improvements can produce meaningful savings while supporting the integrity and effectiveness of the
elections. Thank you. All right, next up, DK Campbell. >> Thank you so much for giving me this opportunity. I'm actually speaking about the bill 2753 and this important legislation gives Tarant County the chance to combine
election day with early voting while restoring the proven accountability proven accountable precinct based voting system we successfully used until 2019. Data shows that in 2018 under precinct
voting, we had 1.1 million registered voters and they cast about 632,000 ballots. By that's about a 57% turnout. By 2022, after countywide voting had come into place, registrations were up 1.26
million. Yet ballots cast fell to 591,000, a turnout of only 47%. So more registered voters but necessar but meaningfully lower participation. So convenience did not result in higher
engagement. In fact, the Brennan Center for Justice reported that in 2020, some Texas voters in predominantly black and Latino neighborhoods faced long wait times compounded because it was the first election utilizing countywide polling
places. Recently, I worked at the popular Diamond Hill voting location and um that was for the 2026 primary and there were voters in line for over four hours and they did not give up. They stayed, they wanted to vote, but if they
had been in their precinct, it would have gone much more quickly. Precinct level voting can smooth out the number of voters at any location. Also critically important, countywide voting creates unuditable results. Officials
cannot release results by polling place by precinct, citing privacy and creating heavy redactions in public reporting. There's no clear way to trace precinct ballots to polling place totals to um
grand totals. So, this eliminates real accountability. It's a true fact. Precinct voting can fix this. It enables count verifications, builds public trust, and reduces recount complexity and costs. And it keeps poll workers
connected to their local neighborhoods and voters, which is a great deal. Um, with a big election imminent, I hope all members of the election board will support this change to the commissioner's court to go back to precinct level voting to make elections
more fair and secure. Thank you so much. All right, John Raymond. >> Well, that's how it worked out. >> Afternoon. I'm going to talk about clocks in all spaces with camera surveillance. On election day, 26th May 2026, at
around 9:40 a.m., the ballot board the ballot board room was informed by the EA that the entire network was down because an IT electrical contractor hit the main power off button. It took down all cameras and systems. A little after 10:00 a.m., the system returned to
normal. Apparently, this has been the third time in three days it happened because the power off button that powers down the whole system is located by an exit and people leaving thinks it's a button to push to open the door to leave
the building. Why there's a button to shut off the system located in such a place as to create confusion to such a crucial part of our republic process of electing our representatives and why there isn't severe penalty for its troublesome
Um, why there isn't a severe penalty for it is troublesome to me. But I'm here to talk about a solution to the cameras going off periodically during election. Any citizen interested in viewing the video of what occurred at any moment
during election in ballot and machine storage, the ballot board room or central count, they should be able to with confidence see that that they are watching a video that's not altered. If someone sees a lapse in a video, they should be able to
inquire freely of what occurred during those moments that were not on camera. It's clear to me that Taran County needs to install 24-hour digital clocks on the wall inside all rooms that live stream. Having this will allow the public to know exactly when the cameras were off
and when they came back online. The camera clock should not be the source of this information as it is electronically within the system and could be altered. Also, the clock's power source should come from the room's outlets or lighting
so as to remain on if there's a system outage. And I I emailed each of you uh a video of uh the March Primary and Williamson County ballboard room that shows a a time lapse. And
the only way you know is there's a digital clock on on a table and it goes from 6:45 to 7:45 just like that. And and to know that the the clock's not or that the clock didn't malfunction, there's a little device on
a table that's got a light on. That light goes out also. So you can that's how you know something the video was off for an hour. But thank you for listening. All right, those are all the forms that I have for speakers. Was there anybody
else that wanted to speak on any agenda items? >> Can I follow up on what? >> Don't remember how much time you had left. >> Yes, ma'am. >> Again, Donna Collins, after that event,
the next day, I went on um from my home computer to look at the ballot board cameras. the date was off and the time was off. I called and spoke with um Troy at length about that and he apologized and said he's fixing it. But these things have to be monitored on a regular
basis because if somebody wants to do a Freedom of Information Act and the camera times and dates are wrong, how are they going to get what they're looking for? That's so I just wanted to point that out that that I witnessed that the date and the time were both wrong. >> Thank you.
>> Thank you. All right. Having taken all the public comments, we'll move on to the next agenda item, which is approval of the August 26, 2025 meeting minutes. >> Move to approve. >> A motion. >> Seconded. >> Got a motion in a second. Any discussion by the board? >> I'm going to abain on this one just
because I wasn't here. >> Understood. So, all in favor? I >> I all opposed. All right. Motion carries. Four and one extension. Next item on the agenda is the approval
of Clint Lewig, Taran County Elections Administrator, as a responsible for the procurement of election supplies for the November 3rd, 2026 general election per 51.0031 of the election code. >> So move. >> All right, we've got a motion second.
Any discussion? >> You can accept it. >> All in favor? I >> I >> all opposed. Motion carries. Next item is appointment of the ballot board members for the November 3rd, 2026
general election per 87.002C of the election code. Before making a motion on this one, the way the election law is written, as the board, we must appoint in the order in which the lists were given to us by
the party chairs. and we cannot appoint any more from one party than another. So that limits us to a max of nine that could be appointed because nine is a total number that were on the the list submitted by the Libertarian Party
>> Clint. I have a follow-up question. >> Okay. >> So if we all appoint nine this meeting, but you know the Republicans have 28 on their list, we have 32. Let's say somebody gets sick. Does that mean somebody else can cycle in or are you just down to eight now to play? >> No, we're not down to eight. The I
reached out to the Secretary of State's office for advice on this and whichever party's list loses one, it >> I'm supposed to work with that party chair in order to replace them from with somebody from their list. >> So, but only nine on the field at any
one time because as Libertarian submitted nine, >> correct? >> So, total of 27. >> 27 in the room until >> potentially >> two eyes maybe. So, >> one, >> if the Republican party had submitted one, we would have three ballot board
members. Uh, for some reason, I'm not sure I buy the Secretary of State's advice. >> The election code says one, like they have to be equal. >> Yeah, well, it may, but do you have any information on this? I the election code
says it has to be equal and did the secretary of state that >> I'm not I don't think that's not the question. I'm not disputing if it has to be equal. What I asked is if if the Republican party said we're appointing one ballot board member. Is it your
position that that means the total number of people on the Tarant County ballot board can only be three? >> If there are three parties then yes. >> Okay. >> Well, that's my question. >> Sorry. >> No, go ahead. May I? Yes, that's my question. I mean, how were they invited to this party to begin with? When was
the last time they had a countywide nominee in Tarant County? >> If the Green Party had submitted one, uh, one person, are we all then held to the what the Green Party does? They they're they've had no one on our ballot. Uh, is at least as far as I can
remember. You all tell me if I'm wrong. Why are they on equal footing with Allison and me? >> I can look up that and get back with you. I don't have it at the >> And isn't that the answer? >> So, I also followed up with the Secretary of State on this one inquiring
and as a as a party, they do have a candidate on the ballot. It doesn't have to be a countywide candidate, but they have a candidate that's on the ballot and therefore they can have a member on the ballot board. Now, there are procedures if we're when we get into the
running of the election. If I need to appoint extra ballot board members to get the job done, I have to work with each individual party in order to appoint extra members, too. So, if we had only had three in the what the way
it was explained to me is I would basically appoint in groups of three and I would work with you and Allison and Joselyn and find a candidate from each of you. now would double it to six and then nine and I would have to keep working but the I have to work with the
party chairs to get above that number. All right, I have another question. If I heard what you said correctly, we have to appoint in the order in which they were submitted >> as in ranked on the papers, right? >> Ranked
>> um where the where where is that? It's in the election code >> in the same statute >> that if a Republican party appoints 10, the 10th cannot be named to this today.
>> They can't. No. >> Are you aware of that law? >> Yes. And I can pull it up and I'll send it to y'all. >> So, I'm going to make this up. either party, they really want their number 13 on the
list, but based on and I I wasn't aware of this before today. Based on what I just heard, what y'all said was sorry 13, you can't be on the list. So, what happens if four, five, and seven
yesterday or this morning say I don't want to be on there anymore? Then the next on the list, so if we had left, if we had ended at 10, then number 11, then number 12, then number 13 would fill in for the ones that stepped off. >> And so if if either I don't know which
what either of them have done or want to do or what anything else, but if there's t there's 28 people on this list, what is it? 32 on another list. I don't even know which list I'm looking at. But if the 15th one is the one they really
want, but they're on 15, you're saying today, "Sorry, that's it. You're out unless all the other ones drop." Then then my question would be, do they have the ability at this point if they don't like either if not that they don't like they would rather have
number 15 than number eight? Do they have the ability to say I would like to substitute number 15 for number eight? You're talking about the chairs, >> the changing the list. Uh, no, the list has been submitted. What I will say is we worked with the parties getting leading up to this process. So, they
prioritize the list so they ensure they get the people they want in the order that they want to get them. >> Okay. >> Okay. >> Final final question is who decides the number? Like if we decided, hey, we just want five from each party. Well,
basically what they're telling you is whichever party decides to only submit X names, that's the number. I >> I just can't possibly buy that as the law. >> We could appoint less than nine per if that's what the board chose to do. We
are just capped at >> nine because that's the longest list that we have. >> So, we could decide >> to do the rest. >> Yes. >> Elections would take a long time. >> Do what now? >> Elections would take a long time. >> Well, I hear you. I'm not saying just over there when we talk about
reducing the number >> because right now you have with nine that's what 27 that you're going to have potentially in the room at the same time and >> interesting >> okay well Robert Duval is on the Republican list since great actor but he
just died what happens there uh >> oh >> so basically today what I think I've heard both of you say is we are picking the first nine here and the first nine here and there's no way around it or option unless we wanted to go to 8 765 432 or one
>> correct >> however the the submitted my understanding just make sure I understand the submitted list as we submitted them even though we can't uh put them in the room at the same time the submitted list as we've submitted them account for who cycles in as needed and in what order >> if yeah if somebody drops off and they
can't make it then we use the list and in the order to fill in the vacancies that are created by somebody If so, >> we're appointing nine and alternates. >> Yes. Yes. Yes. In in this order. >> Okay. >> Yeah. Tough job. And >> so we are approving the whole list
assuming we do so, >> which basically makes 10 through 28 or 10 through 32 the alternates. >> Yes. But we're basically capping the size of the ballot board to >> nine 90 or well 26. So >> in any one >> in any one. Yeah.
>> Okay. Any other discussion? >> Yeah, I just I know we have a lot of uh members here today. I I want us all of us to say thank you for doing this. I mean I I uh I know in the last few cycles especially it has been late and long hours and it's important important
it's critical work uh for what we do. So thank you uh very much for all that you do. That's incredible that we got 69 people willing to sign up right now. So, >> I thank all of them. Absolutely. >> So, I guess I'll do my best here to to
make a motion. I make a motion to appoint one through nine from each party's list as members of the early voting ballot board for the November 2026 election. >> What about alternates? >> Yeah.
You can make two motions or you can combine that into one motion >> with the remainder >> with the remainder serving as alternates. >> So move. >> All right, we have a motion second. Any more discussion?
>> You make sorry. Okay, motion and second. >> Any other discussion? All in favor? I >> I >> I >> All opposed. Motion carries. >> All right. Um the last item here is just
um general discussion and update for the members of the board on 2753. I was recently able to attend some training last week with the Secretary of State and some of their attorneys to talk about the implementation of this bill, how it's going to affect a lot of
the the nuances that are that are going to be coming on with this. Um, one of the things I want to start off with is how this piece of legislation was passed and how it's to be enacted is a little bit different than most bills. There wasn't a hey on September 1st of
this year. This goes into effect. It actually, this one requires that the Secretary of State release a report that basically says, "Hey, all of our counties are now ready to implement this. Let's do this."
and then 2753 will go into effect. So, I I can't tell you when this is going to happen. I just know it's going to happen. >> Can you give us a general flavor of what this bill does? >> So, um I was going to stay out of all
the nuances of of the behind the scenes logistic stuff that it creates for our office, but kind of what the public will notice and you all probably being here will notice. One of the things for sheriff and the county judge, the
custodian of the key duties >> because it takes early voting and combines it into election day. So we now will have 13 straight days of voting. So there would not be an early voting closeout anymore. So at the end of early
voting right now, we contact dispatch, they dispatch out deputies, they go on unlock, and then we go and we pull them out and we bring everything back in. There is no early voting closeout. So now that has to be done election day. >> Um
>> uh yes. Um >> I'm sorry. I'm so sorry. Clint, can we just back up? You're saying you don't know if this will be in effect for November? >> No. I would be very surprised if it is. >> Okay. >> Because I know that the Secretary of State's office has to be able to release this report. I I don't know how many
counties they've spoken to so far, but at the the meeting I was at, it was Tarant County, Dallas County, and Rockwell County. And so if they're doing these meetings and they're only doing three counties at a time with 254 counties, it's going to take a minute. Um I also do know that there are some
things in there that uh we're hoping for some legislative changes to help ease with the implementation and and making this more feasible. And so I wouldn't be surprised if they were waiting till the the legislative session so they could make some changes. But that's just
speculation off of the talks and stuff that I've heard. Um but in theory, could it be for November? Yes. >> Do So the Secretary of State's had a published election calendar for this cycle for the last year and a half. that
doesn't have any sway with like these are set in stone dates because those have the old dates, the current dates with with election early voting being separate from election day. So is the published secretary of state election count that's been out for a year and a half have the ability to change mid cycle? >> I don't think a published calendar would
trump the implementation of legislation, >> right? Okay. >> Um >> making sure. So that's that is obviously one of the things that that you all would would recognize that dovetales into what a lot of the candidates in the public are
going to see and that's at 7:00 when we they're used to seeing all of the absentee ballot by mail and all of the early voting. The only thing I have to release is absentee ballot by mail. All the early voting ballots are still >> in lock
>> in locked boxes at the polling locations. And that's a lot of ballots in a lot of votes. And now we still have the logistical concerns of how do we get those things unlocked, get them back. And then generally our early voting
locations tend to be more popular locations anyway. And so those locations usually end up having lines at the end of the election day. And so now you're going to actually see, I would anticipate a significant delay in large chunks of votes being turned in and
being reported to the public. >> So the early voting, the drives and everything, they cannot be transported until that voting location closes for the day, which means they process the last voter, which could be 11 p.m. >> Correct. >> They can't even start driving to you until 11 p.m. >> Until the last voter is voted.
>> Making sure. So in theory, you're not going to know who voted early or who, you know, it's all mixed. >> You won't know who voted early and who voted on election day. The the law actually states all the results are published as basically inerson voting. So you just know this
>> person or mail. >> Yep. In person or mail. It creates just two buckets. >> Wow. >> That's awful. So currently what the schedule would look like if this this is a calendar if it were to be for this
November election voting would start on Thursday October 22nd and that's a 9-hour day you got Friday a 9-hour day Saturday that Saturday would be a 9-h hour day Sunday 9-hour day
Monday 9 Tuesday 9 Wednesday Thursday 9 Friday 12 Saturday a 12-h hour day Sunday again a 9-hour day Monday a 12-h hour day and then Tuesday election day another 12-h hour day
>> um you're saying that is if this law >> if this were to pass that's what it would look like that's what it would look like with the the continued voting the for reference and I think most people don't know that the three busiest days of voting in the county are the first
day of early voting, the last day of early voting, and election day. All three of those days are a week day. So, they just added weekends. And if a holiday falls on one of those days, we must continue voting on those days. So,
that means all the polling locations have to stay open. So, it's it's a huge change in in the dates and what the public is going to see when it comes to when they can vote. >> But you don't believe this is going to
be implemented this cycle? >> I don't. >> And that's because the Secretary of State hasn't done that report yet. >> Correct. They're they're still going out meeting with the counties having the discussions trying to figure out. Um >> so do you have a poss what would be the
calendar? Do you have any idea what the calendar would be if this is not implemented? >> Oh, if it's if it's not implemented then it would just be as normal. Okay. >> So we would >> the 19th to the 30th or something. >> Yeah. And then we would have the break early
voting closeout for three days and then election day on Tuesday. >> Okay. >> So those are kind of the the big topic items that the public would see when this this goes into effect. There's a lot of behinds the scenes things that make trying to manage this is much more
difficult for the elections department. Um, and of course the the the number of days in the voting and adding the weekends cuz that will be an incurred cost when you look at how we add those things up.
>> Wow. Yes, it will be. >> So, any other questions concerning 2753? >> Any other discussion by the board? Good to see all the good folks here that uh thank y'all for coming out and thank
you all for being a part of this today. This was uh is always enlightening. >> And with that, meeting ajourned.