Election Integrity

Enhanced Report on Tarrant County Election Integrity

In the course of our independent investigations into the 

administration of our local elections, we have unfortunately identified 

multiple severe violations of Texas Election Codes, as well as serious 

facilitation of widespread obfuscation of election records. These violations 

are severe enough in nature that their effects may have rendered the 

majority of Texas Elections thoroughly un-auditable.

Initially, upon our team’s appointment as lawful poll watchers, we 

witnessed the first of two violations that will be covered in this report. Our 

poll watchers witnessed that the ballots, which were placed face-down on a 

table, randomized, and stamped with the presiding election judge’s

signature, were blatantly unlawfully prepared. Per Texas Election Code 

52.062, our Texas ballots are to be prepared by each preparation authority 

by being numbered consecutively, beginning with the number 1. 

Additionally, supporting the concept that our ballots shall be PRE-

NUMBERED, we also have Texas Election Code 62.009, which outlines how 

these PRE-NUMBERED ballots shall be placed face-down, and randomized 

for the voter’s selection, which is designed to protect voter privacy by 

allowing only the voter to be aware of their unique ballot number. 

The consecutive numbering seems to have been reasonably designed 

to preserve records for accurate accounting and/or auditing purposes. Our 

poll watchers were informed by the presiding election judge that the 

ballots are now numbered by the ballot marking devices as the voter casts 

their vote. 

The act of disregarding either or both of these two election 

codes, in favor of allowing the suspect computer programs number the 

ballots randomly as the voter casts their ballot, may have obfuscated our 

elections thoroughly enough to prevent a full audit of our physical ballots 

and votes. By not only changing the process of preparing the ballots, but 

also how the ballot is numbered, without alerting the voting population in any way, those responsible for this change locally may have robbed the 

voters of their right to know how to track their ballots. This act additionally 

may have rendered futile any attempts to allow verify their vote was 

counted accurately, which renders any audit futile, which means our 

elections may not be auditable.

Tarrant County Elections Administrator, Heider Garcia, chose to 

change the processes, and entities responsible for preparation of our 

Tarrant County ballot numbering, with absolutely no notice to Tarrant 

County voters. Upon inspection, the numbers do not appear to be 

consecutive as they appear in a series of numbers that the voter has no way 

of visually documenting as they are double-checking their ballots. Tarrant 

County Voters cannot summon their own ballots to confirm that their vote 

was cast accordingly. 

Our ballots should be prepared according to Texas Election Codes 

52.062 and 62.009, and the machines cannot be allowed to number the 

ballots, randomly or consecutively. 

Allowing the machines to number the 

ballots has the same effect as allowing an election judge to hand a voter a 

pre-numbered ballot. There may very well be a log on the machines that, 

due to claims of proprietary software, only the voting machine companies 

can access. Additionally, any log of ballot numbers associated with a voter’s 

identity, which these logs may contain, could be a violation of voter’s 

privacy by tracking their vote from check-in to ballot marking to 

scanning/tabulating, all in the logs of each machine. With the voters of 

Tarrant County being blissfully unaware of their ballot numbering system 

and relevance, and as the machines may keep a log of this, it stands to 

reason that perhaps the only entity who can access a voter’s individual 

ballot is Hart Inter-Civic, a DRE/ BMD voting system creator, through their own proprietary software.

This is the first of two recent and concerning changes in Tarrant 

County which may have rendered our elections thoroughly un-auditable. 

These machines cannot be allowed to facilitate this level of uncertainty, nor 

to violate previously drafted, debated and agreed upon Texas Election Codes designed to protect the integrity of our elections. The next issue is 

one that may confirm that Tarrant County elections are so loosely 

interpreting Texas Election codes that our local elections are totally out of 

the hands of the voters, as well as potentially being out of the county’s 

control.

We have identified another issue that has somehow become codified 

into Texas Election codes, which effectively authorizes the violation of 

previously established Texas Election codes. These previously drafted, 

debated and passed Texas Election codes which successfully protected our 

elections from undue influence and improper practice.

Texas Election Code 43.007 has authorized the violation or 

circumvention of significant portions of chapters 42,43, and 66 of the Texas 

Election Codes, and no guidelines are provided on how to handle this issue. The only guidance is a deferral to the Secretary of State's office, which may have been under purview of one Keith Ingram, to decide how each county would preserve their Precinct records.

This obfuscation adds up to a significant amount of process, tabulation, 

recording and preservation code violations. The use of “Community Polling 

Centers”, which are unfortunately authorized by all of TX Election Code 43.007, 

where a County using a DRE voting system, or any of a plethora of obscure criteria, to allow voters to vote 

anywhere in the county as opposed to the precinct they are registered in, 

may have rendered our precinct tallying process and election records 

inaccurate, and an audit impossible. 

There does not seem to be a way for these voting machines to 

reallocate these ballots back to the precinct if a voter casts them outside of 

their precinct, without tracking the voter’s info. The process seems to be 

based on the voter check-ins, which gives a unique numerical code to type 

into the ballot marking device, or a BMD. What data does this numerical code contain

after being produced upon the voter’s check in? In theory it should have 

only their precinct number, though we have no way of verifying that unless 

we have full access to the machines and the program coding directly from 

the manufacturer to compare to the machines. 

Assuming this is how the 

process works, we need to subpoena the program from the voting machine 

companies and immediately compare it to all Tarrant County voting 

machines. We must have full access to examine the code. In the case that the numerical code does not contain any data, the 

ballots must necessarily only be reallocated based on how many voters 

checked in from a given precinct.

 This would be terrible for preserving 

precinct records, as the ballots do not seem to be sorted back out after the voter 

scans them in to the scanning machine, and the ballots are dropped into 

the box below. 

There are no identifying marks on the ballot, and the voters 

have surely been denied any input in the administration of our local 

elections, and are thusly widely unaware of their ballot numbers as 

previously established in this report. How are the physical ballots sorted 

back out and filed for preservation as per Texas Election Code 66.058, 

which describes Community Polling Location Ballots as being stored in a 

separate, secure container? This section refers to another code, 129.002, 

which refers to another code 127.131 “Preparing Returns”, which fails to 

describe how the ballots are sorted back out at either a Polling Location or 

Central Count. 

Referring back to Texas Election Code 66.058(h), “For the 

preservation of precinct election records in an election involving a federal 

office, the secretary of state shall instruct the affected authorities on the 

actions necessary to comply with federal law and otherwise implement this 

section.” This particular code gives us the only path to the answer to the 

question of how our precinct records are sorted back into precinct returns. 

The only way to determine if our precinct returns match the reported 

tally for the precinct is to bring forth all of the ballots for a selected precinct 

and hand counting them to add up to the reported totals. If our ballots 

cannot be sorted back into the precinct-specific boxes from Community 

Polling Locations, then a full audit of a selected precinct’s returns is 

rendered impossible. 

This obfuscation cannot stand. 

Our elections have 

been protected by laws that adhere to Article 6, Section 2c of the Texas 

Constitution, and deliberate or neglectful circumvention of Constitutional 

Texas Election Codes, via suspect legal opinions, or weak legislation that in 

effect violates Article 6, Section 2c of the Texas Constitution, should be 

treated with the seriousness the situation demands. Article 6, Section 2c of the Texas Constitution states that the privilege 

of free suffrage shall be protected by laws regulating elections and 

prohibiting under adequate penalties all undue influence in elections from 

power, bribery, tumult, or other improper practice.

 The Secretary of State’s 

office has no constitutional authority, or any other form of valid, lawful, 

authority to oppose and violate the very documents to which you swore or 

affirmed your oath and under which you were delegated by the Governor

the limited authority to conduct the duties of their office. 

Furthermore, proposals along the lines of 43.007 should never 

have been accepted without public discourse and, upon observation of the 

effects the authorization has on our elections, should be repealed 

immediately. The legislature cannot pass laws that effectively weaken the 

security of our elections. We must hold our representatives accountable for 

terrible legislation, lazy legislation, and outright inaction where we need it 

most.

In conclusion, an effort to attempt to audit just one precinct has 

begun, and we intend to show how obfuscated our election records are 

with a demand for just one precinct’s records. Please understand the 

enormity of the situation we find ourselves in. 

Demand your county explain 

how the Secretary of State’s office advised them on handling the DRE and BDM 

Voting System Community Polling Location’s precinct-specific records. 

Please also sign my petition to audit the physical ballots from just one 

precinct in Tarrant County so that we can advance the efforts to return to 

paper ballots and demanding our elections are administered according to 

Constitutional Texas election codes.

Thank you for your time,

Aubree

Taking Back Texas