By Karen Gleason
The 830 Times
County Clerk Teresa Esther Chapoy has asked a district judge to allow her access to a flash drive containing uncounted but still valid absentee ballots cast in the March 5 Democratic and Republican Party Primary Elections.
83th Judicial District Judge Robert E. Cadena ordered the access Wednesday after Chapoy made her request.
Chapoy, along with Val Verde County Republican Party Chair Sharon Pettit, Val Verde County Democratic Party Chair Rose Hernandez, members of the county clerk’s staff and candidate representatives have been meeting in Chapoy’s office at the county courthouse since Monday morning for the convening of the early vote ballot board.
The board, according to a posted flyer announcing its meeting, convenes “for the purpose of qualifying and/or counting the early voting and FPCA ballots received after the March 5, 2024 Primary Elections, yet still eligible to be counted.”
Two candidates in particular are closely watching the proceedings. They are Sergio Diaz and Enrique R. Treviño, both candidates for the Democratic Party nomination for County Commissioner Pct. 1, as one or two votes could decide which of the two will be in a runoff election for the nomination with the top vote getter in the race, Kerr Wardlaw.
On Wednesday, with some of the ballots still unresolved, Chapoy enlisted the assistance of County Attorney David Martinez.
Martinez on Wednesday explained, “Shortly before noon today (Wednesday), I received information from the clerk, the clerk’s office, that they needed some assistance because through their long day (Tuesday), as they reconvened the early ballot board, and were going through the mail-ins, along with a host of issues they had with the machinery, they discovered that there was a media source, a USB drive, that apparently contained, in two different areas on the USB, one area contained absentee ballots and one area contained Election Day ballots.
“An ES&S employee, a representative of the company, who assists the county in working all day during the election, if there are issues with the machine or issues with tabulations, they assist. Apparently, when they were downloading or accessing the information for the Election Day ballots on that USB, they forgot to switch back to the absentee ballots, therefore they were not counted,” Martinez added.
“Now, I understand it is a small number, less than five ballots, and we won’t know exactly until they access it tomorrow (Thursday) morning, but probably less than five votes, but obviously in a race where there is one vote that determines who’s going to be in a runoff, that’s very significant,” the county attorney said.
“The only way that the clerk is permitted to access that USB is by an order from a district judge. Technically speaking, they could do it, but the only way they’re authorized to do it is by the order of a district judge, so at noon today (Wednesday), they asked me if I would assist them in preparing a petition and filing it with the district judge,” Martinez said.
Martinez said Cadena signed the order allowing for the re-opening of the Central Counting Station and the reconvening of the Early Vote Ballot Board.
Cadena in his order directed that the board “tabulate absentee ballots not tabulated and contained on a universal serial bus (USB) flash drive for the March 2, 2024 Democratic and Republican Primary Election. . .”
In the petition prepared by Martinez, it is noted that a technical representative for ES&S, was assisting in election tabulation.
The petition details what happened next.
“Upon creation of the USB in question, the media (flash drive), which contained both absentee ballots as well as Election Day ballots, had to be switched from absentee ballots to Election (Day) ballots to tally the two separate types of ballots as they are saved and read separately. However, the ES&S representative inadvertently forgot to go back to the absentee ballots. As such, it was discovered that the absentee ballots contained on the USB in question were not tabulated nor included in the election night results. It is believed that the USB in question contains absentee ballots which were timely delivered in person and dropped off in the absentee ballot box located in the Val Verde County Clerk’s Office,” the petition reads.
The Early Vote Ballot Board was set to reconvene at 9 a.m. today.
