Recount policies/procedures/costs (Office of Attorney General)

Beryl Lipton filed this request with the State of Texas Secretary of State, Elections Division of Texas.
Status
Completed

Communications

From: Beryl Lipton

To Whom It May Concern:

Pursuant to the Texas Public Information Act, I hereby request the following records:

Any and all policies and procedures regarding the recount of federal, state, or local ballot initiatives, including all materials regarding the following specific points:

• All policies and procedures regarding the initiation of a request to recount votes regarding a particular candidate position or ballot initiative
• All policies and procedures regarding the technical, practical measures for execution of a recount
• All policies, procedures, and considerations regarding the cost and budget of an execution of a recount
• All policies and procedures regarding the tallying and reporting of a vote recount

Please provide relevant procedures for jurisdictions under this agency.

The requested documents will be made available to the general public, and this request is not being made for commercial purposes.

In the event that there are fees, I would be grateful if you would inform me of the total charges in advance of fulfilling my request. I would prefer the request filled electronically, by e-mail attachment if available or CD-ROM if not.

Thank you in advance for your anticipated cooperation in this matter. I look forward to receiving your response to this request within 10 business days, as the statute requires.

Sincerely,

Beryl Lipton

From: publicrecords

December 6, 2016

Dear Mr. Lipton:

The Secretary of State, not the Attorney General, is the chief election officer for the State of Texas. Please direct your request to that agency or to the appropriate county election officials. Thank you.

Sincerely,

June B. Harden
Assistant Attorney General
Assistant Public Information Coordinator
Office of the Attorney General

From: MuckRock

To Whom It May Concern:

Pursuant to the Texas Public Information Act, I hereby request the following records:

Any and all policies and procedures regarding the recount of federal, state, or local ballot initiatives, including all materials regarding the following specific points:

• All policies and procedures regarding the initiation of a request to recount votes regarding a particular candidate position or ballot initiative
• All policies and procedures regarding the technical, practical measures for execution of a recount
• All policies, procedures, and considerations regarding the cost and budget of an execution of a recount
• All policies and procedures regarding the tallying and reporting of a vote recount

Please provide relevant procedures for jurisdictions under this agency.

The requested documents will be made available to the general public, and this request is not being made for commercial purposes.

In the event that there are fees, I would be grateful if you would inform me of the total charges in advance of fulfilling my request. I would prefer the request filled electronically, by e-mail attachment if available or CD-ROM if not.

Thank you in advance for your anticipated cooperation in this matter. I look forward to receiving your response to this request within 10 business days, as the statute requires.

Sincerely,

Beryl Lipton

From: Andre Montgomery

This e-mail is in response to your e-mail copied below. Recounts of all public elections in Texas are governed by Chapters 211, 212, 213, 214, 215 and 216 of the Texas Election Code. As stated, these are the chapters that govern recounts of all public elections in the state whether they be federal, state, district, county or local (e.g. municipal or school district elections). The relevant chapters of the Election Code can be reviewed at the website here: http://www.statutes.legis.state.tx.us/?link=EL.

On our website (which is already publicly available) we also have an outline related to procedures for requesting and conducting a recount. This outline summarizes the relevant sections of law cited above. The outline is available here: http://www.sos.state.tx.us/elections/laws/recounts.shtml.

We hope this will be helpful to you.

Andre Montgomery
Staff Attorney – Elections Division
Office of the Texas Secretary of State

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