Two ways Texas can immediately rebuild public trust in elections

Austin-area Republican precinct chairmen and Travis GOP staff have made tremendous efforts in 2023 and 2024 toward the goal of reassuing the public that each and every vote is being accurately counted. On Jan. 16, the Travis GOP Executive Committee voted unanimously to approve a resolution that calls on the Governor to prioritize two key election reforms — video documentation of counting and allowing local authorities to implement efficient hand-counting procedures. The text of the resolution is below.

Whereas, public confidence in Texas and US election processes has significantly eroded as processes have become increasingly centralized and computerized while security has been sacrificed for convenience; and

Whereas, data revealed by experts in recent years demonstrates that unauthorized intruders have the ability to access Texas election systems; and

Whereas, Texans have unwittingly placed their electoral trust in centralized computer systems, significantly different from the decentralized election protocols used by our founders that allowed voters to have the ability to understand, control, secure, verify, and audit the election results and processes from beginning to end.

NOW THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED That this body hereby calls for Governor Greg Abbott to make public TRUST in Texas elections his number one priority by immediately calling for a special session of the Texas Legislature to address the current lack of TRUST in our election system by:

Revising Chapter 65 of the Texas Election Code to allow each authority holding an election the flexibility to use additional methods of hand counting that are more efficient, transparent, and verifiable than is currently prescribed.

Allowing the use of video to document the counting process in enough detail to allow every citizen to view and count the votes themselves (posted the day after the election).

Approved by floor vote, 1/16/24

In other election reform business, the TCRP Executive Committee also passed the following resolution put forth by the Resolutions Committee:

"RESOLVED the Travis County Republican Party supports retaining and enforcing the existing requirement in the Texas Election Code that voter registrations, applications for absentee ballots, and petitions to place candidates or issues on the ballot contain signatures 'in the signers own handwriting' to protect against ballot harvesting. We oppose any legislation that would authorize Internet or App-based voter registration or absentee ballot requests."

Approved 1/16/24