Elections do not happen haphazardly. There are laws that direct the entire process. Every state has an election code law book – it is a thick book - the Texas Election Code is over 550 pages, size of pages are 8x10. As laws are changed or added by the state legislature, a new book is published. No matter in which state you live, your state has an Election Code law book. As an example of how you can find your state’s election code, I looked up Florida’s election code. I found these links:
Florida Election Laws:
http://www.leg.state.fl.us/statutes/index.cfm?App_mode=Display_Index&Title_Request=IX#TitleIXFlorida Division of Elections:
http://dos.myflorida.com/elections/laws-rules/rules/Download pdf file of Florida Election Code
http://dos.myflorida.com/media/693802/election-laws.pdfYou can do the same for your state if you want to read your state’s election laws without buying the law book.
There are federal election laws and each state must develop a process to correctly follow these laws if any federal office is included in an election. In the presidential election of 2000, there was a recount required by law in the state of Florida. States have laws that determine whether a recount is automatically triggered. If the difference of votes between two candidates falls at or above a certain percentage, an automatic recount is required. That is what happened in Florida. Since it was required, the candidates did not have to pay for the recount. If the difference of votes between two candidates is not within these parameters, but one of the candidates wants a recount anyway, the candidate must pay for the recount. So, if either candidate, Clinton or Trump, want a recount but one has not been automatically triggered, that candidate will have to pay for the recount.
After the Florida election was resolved, new federal election laws, the “Help America Vote Act” (HAVA) was passed in 2002, creating a new federal agency to serve as a clearinghouse for election administration information and (1) providing funds to states to improve election administration and replace outdated voting systems; and (2) creating minimum standards for states to follow in several key areas of election administration. In my opinion, these were excellent laws. Every state must follow these laws and had to rewrite their election code to include them. This was during the time I taught election law in numerous counties in Texas, so I had to know these new laws – they are imbedded in my memory forever.
These new laws included:
1. Punch ballots were outlawed – no more hanging chads. No state could use them beginning in 2006.
2.
Provisional ballots were created. All states must use them. An example of when a provisional ballot is used:
A. If a voter appears at a polling place and the voter’s name is not on the list of registered voters for that precinct, that voter may only vote a provisional ballot (normally a paper ballot which is then sealed in an envelope and put in a locked box). At the end of election day, the provisional ballots are returned to the central counting station. On the next day or the next day, a committee called the “Early Voting Ballot Board” (some states may call it otherwise), meets and determines whether or not that voter is a registered voter in that polling precinct (the name is searched on the master list of registered voters). The ballot is counted or not counted determined by the committee. In my case, I was the Judge of the Early Voting Ballot Board for ten years and no provisional ballot was accepted after our investigation.
Voters in a precinct may see someone voting a provisional ballot and think that person is voting a regular ballot when the person is not. That could lead the voter viewing that process to leave and say there is voter fraud happening because he/she does not understand the process.
3.
Every Secretary of State was made the “keeper” of the state’s master voter list. Before this law there was no official state master list of registered voters. (The actual person in the Secretary of State’s office who supervises elections is the “Director of Elections” who is hired by the Secretary of State and is usually a lawyer. Also in that department are more lawyers who deal with election questions that come up in the counties.)
Before this law, the election administrator (county clerk or election administrator) would put a potential voter on the list of registered voters if the person had a physical address in the county and had checked he/she is a US citizen. The administrator had no power to check state records about this person. This is what happens now:
A potential voter comes to register. The election administrator accepts the information from the potential voter. If the voter does not have a Texas driver's license number or the number of a personal identification card issued by the Department of Public Safety, the last four digits of the person’s social security number must be given. If the potential voter has none of these numbers, the administrator contacts the Secretary of State, Election Director, who does a search which may include birth records, death records, driver’s license records, passport records, criminal records, all records where this person’s name and birth date appears. If it is determined that person is a citizen, the Secretary of State sends an approval to the election administrator and the person is added to the master voter list of the county. This is a way to keep illegals from being on the county voter list.
How Voters Who Die Are Removed From Voter Lists:
You may have heard many dead people are on voter lists of counties and these “dead” people vote. Do not believe this happens often as there is a system to remove voters who die. Here is the actual law in Texas and your state also has a process like, or similar, to this:
“Sec. 16.001. DEATH. (a) Each month the local registrar of deaths shall prepare an abstract of each death certificate issued in the month for a decedent 18 years of age or older who was a resident of the state at the time of death. The local registrar of deaths shall file each abstract with the voter registrar of the decedent's county of residence and the secretary of state not later than the 10th day of the month following the month in which the abstract is prepared.”
Another way voters are removed from voter lists:
If renewal voter cards are sent to voters every year or every two years (Texas is every two years, sent between November 15- December 6), and that voter card is returned to the election administer as “undeliverable”, the name of the voter is put on “Suspense”. A letter is sent to the voter in March, and if that is returned as “undeliverable”, the name remains on Suspense. If on November 30 following the second general election for state and county officers that occurs after the date the voter's name is entered on the suspense list a registered voter's name appears on the suspense list, the registrar shall cancel the voter's registration unless the name is to be deleted from the list under Section 15.023.
Here is law regarding removal of a voter’s name from the voter list due to ineligibility.
SUBCHAPTER B. CANCELLATION
Sec. 16.031. CANCELLATION ON OFFICIAL NOTICE OF INELIGIBILITY. (a) The registrar shall cancel a voter's registration immediately on receipt of:
(1) notice under Section 13.072(b) or 15.021 or a response under Section 15.053 that the voter's residence is outside the county;
(2) an abstract of the voter's death certificate under Section 16.001(a) or an abstract of an application indicating that the voter is deceased under Section 16.001(b);
(3) an abstract of a final judgment of the voter's total mental incapacity, partial mental incapacity without the right to vote, conviction of a felony, or disqualification under Section 16.002, 16.003, or 16.004;
(4) notice under Section 112.012 that the voter has applied for a limited ballot in another county;
(5) notice from a voter registration official in another state that the voter has registered to vote outside this state;
(6) notice from the early voting clerk under Section 101.0041 that a federal postcard application submitted by an applicant states a voting residence address located outside the registrar's county; or
(7) notice from the secretary of state that the voter has registered to vote in another county, as determined by the voter's driver's license number or personal identification card number issued by the Department of Public Safety or social security number.
(b) The registrar shall cancel a voter's registration immediately if the registrar:
(1) determines from information received under Section 16.001(c) that the voter is deceased;
(2) has personal knowledge that the voter is deceased;
(3) receives from a person related within the second degree by consanguinity or affinity, as determined under Chapter 573, Government Code, to the voter a sworn statement by that person indicating that the voter is deceased; or
(4) receives notice from the secretary of state under Section 18.068 that the voter is deceased.
Returning to another provision in the Help America Vote Act:
4. The federal government gave money to states that wanted to use electronic voting machines. That money was only available for a certain amount of time, and most states opted for the money to begin to use voting machines. There were numerous companies making voting machines and a county could determine which machines they wanted to use. Counties could also determine if they wanted to continue to use paper ballots, no machines.
States wrote laws to develop a process for using voting machines. That meant laws to determine where they were kept in the county, how they were programmed, how they were checked for accuracy, how they were kept safe after programming, how they were delivered to polling places and how they were safely returned to central counting at the end of election day.
Here is the process for Texas and your state also has laws for this process:
Electronic voting machines are kept locked in a room in your county, usually the courthouse or a courthouse annex.
When there is a state/federal election slated, and the official ballot is set for the election, the machines are programmed, either by the county technician or by a technician from the machine’s company.
In a county: On a set day, the county clerk or election administrator, meets with the Republican Chairman and Democrat Chairman of the county, and each machine is checked for accuracy. If a machine fails, it is removed then to be corrected. Once the machines are determined to be correct, they are locked in a room with two locks. The key to one lock is with the county clerk or election administrator, and the other lock’s key is given to the county sheriff. If the sheriff is on the ballot, the key is given to the county judge (their terms are staggered so both are not on the ballot at the same time).
On election day, the room is unlocked and the sheriff’s deputies deliver the machines to the polling places. At the polling place, the election judge (of one party) and the alternate judge (of the opposing party), check the machines are set at zero.
How Electronic Voting Machines Work:
They count, that is all they do. They are not individually hooked to the internet. Besides the removable memory component the election judge/alternate take out of the machine at the end of election day, there is an internal count in the guts of the machine that only a company tech can take out of the machine in case there is a question as to the count on that machine.
At the end of election day, the judge and alternate judge take the internal memory components to central counting, followed by a sheriff’s deputy. The sheriff deputies also carry the voting machines back to the room from which they came and they are once again locked up.
There are now various types of voting machines but you can see there are laws that determine how these machines are kept safe. I have read numerous accounts how some people have changed the counts of these machines. Every single one required having the machine in their possession to do their dirty work. If the machines are kept safe by following the law, no one has access to these machines.
I am presenting selected actual law regarding voting machines after they have been delivered to the polling places, since there is so much misinformation about voting machine “fraud” happening at polling places. Please note the process when a machine malfunctions.
Sec. 125.005. MAINTAINING SECURITY OF EQUIPMENT DURING VOTING. (a) The presiding judge (at the polling place) shall periodically have an election officer inspect the voting system equipment for tampering and damage while voting is in progress.
(b) If any tampering or damage is discovered, the inspecting officer shall immediately stop use of the equipment and report to the presiding judge, who shall promptly take appropriate action.
Sec. 125.006. MALFUNCTION OF EQUIPMENT AT POLLING PLACE. (a) The presiding judge shall stop use of malfunctioning voting system equipment installed at a polling place immediately after discovering that the equipment is not functioning properly.
(b) The presiding judge shall have the malfunctioning equipment promptly repaired or replaced if practicable.
(c) If the presiding judge determines that the equipment cannot be promptly repaired or replaced and that voting cannot be continued by using only the remaining operational equipment without substantially interfering with the orderly conduct of the election, voting at that polling place may be conducted by one of the following methods in addition to, or instead of, using remaining operational equipment:
(1) using another voting system that has been adopted for use in the election;
(2) using regular paper ballots, whether early voting ballots or ballots for regular voting on election day; or
(3) having voters manually mark the electronic system ballots that were furnished for use with the malfunctioning equipment and having the ballots processed as regular paper ballots.
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Sec. 125.010. PRESENCE OF VOTING SYSTEM TECHNICIAN AUTHORIZED.
(a) In this section, "voting system technician" means a person who as a vocation repairs, assembles, maintains, or operates voting system equipment.
(b) On the request of the authority holding the election, a voting system technician may be present at a polling place, a meeting of the early voting ballot board, or a central counting station for the purpose of repairing, assembling, maintaining, or operating voting system equipment.
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SUBCHAPTER C. ELECTRONIC VOTING SYSTEMS
Sec. 125.061. INSPECTING EQUIPMENT AT POLLING PLACE. (a) Before opening a polling place for voting on election day, the presiding judge shall inspect any electronic voting system equipment installed at the polling place to determine whether it is installed and functioning properly.
(b) The presiding judge shall take appropriate corrective action if the equipment is not installed or functioning properly.
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Sec. 125.063. SECURING EQUIPMENT ON CLOSE OF VOTING. On the close of voting at each polling place at which electronic voting system equipment is used, an election officer shall secure or inactivate the equipment as prescribed by the secretary of state so that its unauthorized operation is prevented.
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Sec. 125.064. RECORDS AVAILABLE FOR PUBLIC INSPECTION. Any documents or records used in the preparation of or prepared for use in an electronic voting system for the operation of the system for a particular election and any documents or records generated by the system in that election shall be made available for public inspection in the office of the general custodian of election records for the period for preserving the precinct election records.
Vote By Mail – Absentee Voting
In my opinion, working as the Judge of the Early Voting Ballot Board for a number of years, there is more voter fraud in mail in ballots than any other type of election fraud. Narrowing that down, most of the fraud is done in nursing homes. There is a way to disqualify those ballots since the perpetrators don’t know the law as to completing the paper work on the carrier envelope. If the Judge of that board knows the law regarding those applications, most of the fraudulent ballots can be disqualified. The Board has a judge and an equal number of Democrats and Republicans. This is how the Board qualifies mail in ballots:
The election code has specific laws that each ballot paperwork must pass. The Board must use those rules to qualify a ballot.
First, the signature on the carrier envelope must match the signature on the ballot application. If there is no signature on the carrier envelope, the ballot is rejected. If no signature on the application, the ballot is rejected. If the signatures do not match, the ballot is rejected.
If any “required” fill in space on the carrier envelope is vacant, the ballot is rejected. If someone helped the voter, that someone must print AND sign his/her name, and provide an address on the carrier envelope. If any of those required spaces is vacant, the ballot is rejected.
A “helper” may only help one by mail voter, unless the helper is related to the voter by certain degrees of affinity or consanguinity.
The voter’s name must be on the master voter list, or the ballot is rejected.
The actual ballots are in sealed envelopes. Those envelopes are stacked up and then opened.
That is so a voter’s ballot envelope won’t be opened as soon as his/her paperwork is approved and the Board could identify the candidate choices of the voter.
How Voting District lines Are Drawn:
After a census of the country, voting district lines are redrawn. This is done due to the population growth in some areas and the population being less in some areas.
Yes, there are laws that determine where lines are drawn. Let’s consider your county:
Law sets the number of people to be in a commissioner’s precinct. Your commissioner’s court draws the lines.
The legislature draws the lines for congressional districts. There is a legal number of folks to be in a congressional district. Lines are drawn to contain that number. Democrats love to be the major party in the legislature to draw those lines. Republicans love to be in the majority in the legislature to draw those lines. Remember, the number is set by law to be in those districts so a party cannot gerrymander a line to make it more or less than the law defines. They can jiggle a line as long as the number in the district still satisfies the law.
I recall, in 2003, our Republican led legislature drew the lines and Democrat legislators left the state so it could not be voted on. Some went into Oklahoma and some into New Mexico. This is the history of that on Wikipedia (The Texas Eleven):
The Texas Eleven were a group of Texas Senate Democrats who fled Texas for Albuquerque, New Mexico for 46 days in 2003 aimed at preventing the passage of controversial redistricting legislation that was intended to benefit Texas Republicans. A group of Texas House representatives, dubbed the Killer Ds, had fled the state earlier that same summer for the same reason.
U.S. House Majority Leader Tom DeLay, then a powerful figure in Texas politics, advocated arresting the Texas Eleven, telling reporters that he supported using FBI agents or U.S. Marshals to arrest the runaway Democrats and bring them back to Austin, asserting that redistricting is a matter of federal concern.
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The above report on how elections work is what I have experienced in working with elections.
If you have a problem with it, send me a message and I’ll answer it.
In 2003, I wrote a law (Sec.127.005e) that was passed by the Texas Legislature and that created a judge and alternate judge in central counting where your votes are counted on election night. Before that law, in our county, the central counting station was held by the county clerk who was a Democrat, and she would not let any Republicans into the central counting station where ballots were being counted. It was that way all over Texas, a Republican county clerk could keep out Democrats. The law I wrote required a judge and alternate judge just as a voting precinct has. If the Judge was a Republican (meaning in the last gubernatorial election the county voted in the majority for the Republican gubernatorial candidate), the alternate Judge would be a Democrat. Both Republicans and Democrats are now in central counting where your ballot is counted.
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