04/25/2017
VOTER ALERT - Hays County - Report Problems
Have you experienced voting irregularities at the polling place during early voting? There were two instances before 10 a.m. on the first day of early voting.
Report irregularities @ Hays County Political Party, through messaging or in comments. Latest info posted there.
Click the photo and there's about 3-5 minutes of reading on why some of us think this is important.
Voter Alert – Hays County – Report Irregularities
Have you experienced irregularities during Early Voting taking place right now in Hays County?
Were you:
- Given the Wrong Ballot? We are aware of one credible report from Monday morning early voting that a voter outside the City of San Marcos was issued an electronic ballot for the CoSM bond packages. We are aware of multiple similar instances from the Nov. 2016 elections. We don't know how widespread this is, and we're trying to understand.
- Told You Already Voted? We've had a couple of reports of this during the Nov. 2016 elections. This is pretty shocking to hear, and again just trying to understand how widespread it is.
- Turned away for some reason, but are certain you are properly registered?
If these or any irregularities happen to you at the polling place,
A) Bring it to the attention of the Election Judge at the polling place to resolve while you wait. Ask that he/she notify the Elections Office while you are there.
B) Please report any irregularities here by messaging to the @ Hays County Political Party page. Or you may text your brief summary to Sam Brannon at 512-925-2592 (include first and last name, and the approx time and location where you voted). We'll do our best to get back to everyone, best we can.
C) It would help a lot if you would also contact the Hays County Elections Office at 512-393-7310, and report the issue, and ask that your issue be noted in the Issues Log Book.
–- Keep reading if you want to more about this post. ---
As Hays County voters cast their ballots in various school board and city council races, and for or against a variety of bonded debt packages, one good question to ask is “Does my vote count?”. A growing body of evidence suggests that in Hays County, it might not.
1) On December 6, 2016 a district court judge over-turned the “Anthem MUD election”, issuing a finding a fact that there were two votes for all the propositions and officers. What the county reported as 0-1 outcomes were ruled 2-0 by the court. The official county story was that the voters probably made mistakes in the voting booth.
2) After weeks of citizen questions going unanswered, we were told that a Mobile Ballot Box (MBB) had been found that had apparently been taken out of service and misplaced during early voting. That MBB holds 1,816 votes that went uncounted, and remain uncounted. There has been no public accounting for how the MBB was misplaced, or found.
3) There were four Hays County residents inside the computer room on November 8th as election observers, two of whom I've spoken with that told me all of the MBB's were accounted for. There were checklists checked. Eyewitness accounts seem in conflict with this aspect of the official county story.
4) Elections Administrator Jennifer Anderson claims that the lost-then-found MBB included the two “Yes” votes for the officers and propositions in the Anthem MUD Election. When citizens raised questions about where the “No” votes came from, the answer was “somebody was probably given an incorrect ballot”. If this is an isolated incident, it seems rather improbable that it would occur in a taxing entity with only two voters.
5) It seems polling place officials handing out incorrect ballots is not so isolated after all. We know of multiple others, including one whose vote forced a tie in an election. Hays County officials have been silent on this, and have so far refused to investigate how wide-spread this problem may be.
6) We've heard multiple stories of people getting to the polls and being told they had already voted. These claims are very troubling. We are attempting to fully document them as well.
7) Hays County does not follow Texas state law in the administration of electronic voting machines in a number of important regards. One example, the machines are not capturing the ballot images (think screen shot), that serve as part of the audit trail. We're deficient in several regards, and that's unacceptable.
Both the Hays County Commissioners Court and the Hays County Elections Commission have the duty to ensure lawful elections. A couple of dozen citizens have asked for a Public Hearing on these matters, and a formal audit of the November 2016 elections in Hays County. To date, no one at the county has been willing to address our concerns or requests.
