Advocates Gain Positive Movement for Election Integrity in Montgomery County
October 16, 2024 | Montgomery County, TX
by Lauren Vickers, Montgomery County Election Integrity Advocate
After three years of attempting to meet with elected officials on Election Integrity concerns, the Montgomery County Elections Commission scheduled a meeting for September 23rd in Commissioners Court. However, 30 minutes before the start of the meeting, it was abruptly canceled due to an error in the lack of public notice.
During a conversation that was streamed live on the Montgomery County Tea Party Rumble channel, County Judge Mark Keough expressed concern that the Elections Commission may not be the proper place to air the grievances the people currently held. Therefore, he suggested a “workshop” be called under miscellaneous at the Commissioners Court meeting the following day.
Two official meetings took place following this discussion. The first meeting was considered a “workshop” held by Judge Keough. Commissioner Charlie Riley was also in attendance. During the workshop held on Friday, September 27th, at 3 pm in Commissioners Court, several election integrity advocates within the county voiced their grave concerns regarding the vulnerabilities within our current voting system. This public workshop lasted over three hours and involved much debate. The debate began with an offer of immediate solutions to ensure security in our November elections.
The solutions presented by the advocates were:
Electronic poll books to be disconnected from the network on Election Day.
This solution was met with Montgomery County Elections Administrator, Suzie Harvey, agreeing to do so due to the county holding precinct location voting on November 5th. Therefore, there is no need to connect the network.
A certified list of eligible voters to be created according to Texas Election Code 18.001.
The list of election day voters to be released within 24 hours after Election Day.
The people to be allowed a poll watcher to observe the central count computer so they can ensure no manual entries are made.
According to the Hart InterCivic administrator guide and Examiner Tom Watson’s report, which can be found on the Texas Secretary of State website, manual entries indeed can be made, and the reports provided do not show whether or not votes have been inserted manually.
Lastly, a more thorough hand count to be performed to ensure accuracy of the vote, by conducting a partial hand count similar to and in addition to what is currently done, except that the precincts will be chosen locally in a random, transparent process.
All contested races will be counted, and if discrepancies are greater than 1% or the margin of victory, the entire election must be hand-counted.
This solution was mostly approved through a Resolution and Order presented at the October 8th Commissioners Court (more information below).
At the second meeting, held by the Elections Commission at 1 pm on September 30th, more public testimony was given regarding the fact that the Commission itself had not held a meeting in upwards of seven years. It was made known the week prior that this Commission meets for three specific reasons: to hire, fire, and evaluate the Elections Administrator.
Both sides widely agreed that Suzie Harvey has done an excellent job in holding the position of Elections Administrator. However, the election integrity group advocated that the Commission should begin holding evaluation meetings regularly. This will ensure that the county’s people, Harvey, and the nonpartisan Commission Board can hear and voice concerns in a public forum.
Following the conclusion of these meetings, a Resolution and Order were drafted. A vote was held during a regularly scheduled Commissioners Court Meeting on Tuesday, October 8th, and the resolution passed unanimously.
As a result of the resolution, the Montgomery County Elections Administrator will conduct a recount in accordance with Texas Election Code 127.201 (a), which requires the adoption of a policy and procedure to randomly select additional electoral precincts and manually recount the votes in a manner that is transparent and accessible to the public.
If you, too, are concerned with election integrity and security in the upcoming election, here are a few options to consider:
Use tipline illegalvoting@oag.texas.gov to report suspected violations of Texas law.
Sign up to become a poll watcher or worker at https://elections.mctx.org/training/default.html.
By Texas Election Code 273.001, you may take any complaint or concern you may have regarding your elections to your county’s district attorney.