By Natalia Contreras, Votebeat and The Texas Tribune
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CALHOUN COUNTY, Texas (Texas Tribune) – Calhoun County finished submitting its primary election results to the state Friday morning after county Republicans, who hand counted their primary ballots, missed a deadline in state law requiring them to submit early-voting and Election Day results to the county no later than 24 hours after polls closed, a county election official said.
Mary Ann Orta, the elections administrator in the South Texas county, which includes Victoria and Port Lavaca, and the Texas Secretary of State’s Office both confirmed the county GOP missed the deadline and its results were submitted to the state Friday morning. The results for county Democrats, who used electronic voting equipment to tabulate ballots, were submitted to the state not long after the polls closed on Tuesday night, Orta said.
In Texas, political parties decide at the county level how their primaries will be administered, and Calhoun Republicans chose to hand count ballots this year, including those cast early and at 11 Republican precincts on Election Day, a labor-intensive process.
In a text message responding to questions from Votebeat, Calhoun County GOP Chair Russell Cain said the party “would like to thank the Calhoun County Elections Office and the Texas Secretary of State for their continual support and guidance during the Republican Primary Handcount. We had about a hundred people devoted to this endeavor and appreciate their dedication and resilience throughout the counting process.”
He did not immediately respond to questions about exactly when workers completed counting, or about the missed deadline to report results. There were 3,153 ballots cast in the county’s GOP primary, according to data posted on the Texas secretary of state’s website Friday.
Failure to provide results by the 24-hour deadline is a class B misdemeanor, which carries fines of up to $2,000 and the potential for jail time. The Texas Secretary of State’s Office declined to comment on how the law is enforced, or the potential legal implications of the party’s failure to meet the deadline. But Alicia Pierce, a spokesperson for the agency, referred Votebeat to a section of the Texas election code that says the canvassing authority — in this case, the county party chair and the party’s executive committee — can seek a court order to force the delivery of records and supervision of the counting process. However, local prosecutors generally have the authority to investigate and prosecute any election crimes or violations, according to the election code.
Orta did not have many answers Friday morning. She and her staff have been sleep-deprived since Tuesday, as they waited for all the information necessary to report results to the state.
“I’m exhausted and still trying to make heads or tails of everything we’ve got,” Orta said.
This year, Republicans in Gillespie and Eastland counties also hand counted ballots. In Gillespie, the process was complete at around 5 a.m. Wednesday. In Eastland, election officials did not report totals to the state until about 5:45 p.m. Wednesday, and said they had to obtain a court order to access a secured box containing ballots after a form containing tallies from one precinct was mistakenly locked inside.
In the 2022 primary, Harris County failed to report results by the state-mandated deadline. Election officials cited issues with new voting equipment and a two-page ballot as the reasons why it took almost 30 hours to complete the vote counts. The county sought a court order to extend the deadline. No one was charged with a misdemeanor, but the county’s chief election official resigned days later, after it emerged that her office failed to include thousands of ballots in the total vote count.
In some cases, county GOP officials have cited the pressure of the results deadline as a reason they decided against hand counting.
Natalia Contreras is a reporter for Votebeat in partnership with The Texas Tribune. She is based in Corpus Christi. Contact Natalia at ncontreras@votebeat.org.