Texas has already certified its November 2020 election returns. Although Harris County says that Brian Carroll, American Solidarity presidential nominee, received 422 write-ins, the Texas Secretary of State official tally shows zero.
Also, the Texas Secretary of State’s tally shows 1,866 write-ins for President R. Boddie, another declared write-in presidential candidate. But the County says Boddie did not receive any write-ins in Bexar County.
The Texas Secretary of State says it is too late to fix these obvious errors, unless someone files a lawsuit. Thanks to the American Solidarity Party for this news.
I recall this isn’t the first recent cycle where the entry of presidential write-in totals in Texas has not exactly been exact. I think 2008 had some write-in numbers change once they double-checked.
Also, of all the new ways to display election results, the new layout being used by Indiana and Texas is pretty lousy. Indiana also had a problem with actually certifying the right totals in 2018 (with the Libertarians in one county) and last I checked, they transposed the 2020 totals for one county in the 9th Congressional District.
The SOS does not tally votes. It sums the results from the official canvass in each county.
Bexar County had earlier reported a large number of votes for Boddie. The number cited in BAN appears to be the total write-ins for president, including 1522 for non-candidates. I had noticed that the Bexar results had been corrected on the county website, but not the state’s official results. The current version does not show any votes for Boddie, as distinguished from zero votes.
Harris County has never shown any votes for Carroll not even an entry of zero.
I suspect the counties messed up and are trying to lay the blame on the SOS.
There is a procedure for an amended county canvass. I suppose Carroll could contest the election – I’m not sure that will go anywhere since it will not effect the results.
There may be some smaller counties that messed up as well. The only recorded write-ins were for Presiden Boddie.
One more excuse [esp in an ex-slave / rebel state] for Devil City gangs to take over ALL elections.
They should file that lawsuit; give the two-party state an inch when it comes to making these “errors” in vote counting, they’ll feel emboldened to take a mile.
ANY crimes in Texas for certifying ILLEGAL stats ???
ANY olde folks still around in 1948 USA Senate LBJ ballot stuffing event ???
These sorts of mistakes are uncomfortably common. I found one like that in Connecticut in 2012 for the Independent presidential candidate (Rocky Anderson), as well as the Libertarian candidates for president (Gary Johnson) and US Senate (Paul Passarelli).
Anderson and Johnson had 37 and 72 votes in the town of Seymour in the initial returns, but 0 in the official certification. I emailed the Secretary of State about it and she admitted the zeros were mistakes. She blamed it on the town and said nothing could be done about it after it was certified. Passarelli also had 0 votes in Middlefield and Washington for the same reason.
Additionally, the towns of East Windsor and Preston improperly swept all votes for cross endorsed candidates on a minor party line (Independent or Working Families party) into the major party vote total. While that would not have changed the outcome of the election or the candidate’s totals, the practice could potentially cost the Independent or Working Families parties ballot access, if it caused them to drop below 1% for the office.
And in other years I noticed obvious transcription errors. Like a Libertarian candidate getting roughly 1% in every town across the state, except one town would randomly be 10% because somebody’s fat finger hit an extra digit. Stuff like that is obvious for minor party candidates, but I have to wonder how often it occurs for major party candidates, where it isn’t obvious. Switch ‘890’ for ‘980’ and unless the town happens to be one of those that are audited, no one will ever catch the mistake. And that could potentially change the outcome of an election.
Men, our team is trying to unite with Mises Caucus and everybody under pure proportional representation (PPR) and we need help.
Mark Herd [Libertarian] is hosting the Zoom show and I plan to attend.
Herd and I are trying to build a team around the Los Angeles County L.P. from scratch that will collaborate and stop the one-party voting system currently used, promoted and welcomed.
The LP of Los Angeles County (LPLAC) headed up by our own Angela McArdle.
The Secretary David Bowers opposes the competition to his one-party insider boss control.
Men, we didn’t do a good enough job to eliminate single-winner election districts under ranked choice voting which brings the one-party voting system and the dictatorship psychology, we love Angela and her excellent work but the Secretary counted the votes wrong.
The one-party system is no good.
America is a melting pot. The one-party voting system is twice as bad as a two-party system.
I have the original paper ballots from 2019 LPLAC meeting and in 2020 they went paperless.
But I haven’t made a video about the correct vote count nor have shown the members how when counted correctly my name a Libertarian won.
If anyone can please help us get off the ground in Los Angeles County, you need not live in the county, and we need your vote(s) next June if you can plan to be there.
You must affiliate with California State LP and request Los Angeles County and you have to follow up to make sure that gets done.
The Los Angeles County L.P. isn’t interested in hearing about pure proportional representation and they don’t know anything about it.
Rhere is a new big group bringing ranked choice voting in single-winner election districts with members sitting on the LNC, the CA LP and the LA County L.P. and the new group for RCV in single-winner election districts has been blocking the competition to the one-party insider boss control. That group beings a one-party voting system under RCV in single-winner election districts where elections get conducted like all LP elections, one-by-one, and the biggest faction always wins (one-party system).
Please, we need help, Los Angeles County is the biggest most populous county of 4000+ counties.
Our team brings 144 population balanced mini-states and the Los Angeles County Mini-state is one of 144.
The new Los Angeles County Mini-state is my faction, trying to work with Mark Herd’s friends and campaign, to bring a three-party voting system to Los Angeles County then to unite all three (or more) factions under pure proportional representation (PPR).
Please try to bring your team to these Zoom shows and be patient since it’s very important we eliminate any residuals of one-party voting systems.
Thanks very much for your time and consideration.
Here’s where we sign up to Mark’s show where you can learn more via Zoom on next Tuesday night.
https://m.facebook.com/story.php?story_fbid=10221151964286248&id=1159037605
Learn more about FEC Complaint Ogle vs Brin (Brin is google founder)
https://www.allpartysystem.com/Appeal-to-FEC.php
@BH,
On the Texas results click on Reports at the very top.
@RW,
What is the basis for your claim that “Harris County says …”.?
The ASP should probably check the results for Lamar and Van Zandt counties.
Who in the heck is President R. Boddie, and did that many people know to cast a write in vote for him? I follow this kind of stuff far closer than most people, and this guy is so obscure that even I had never heard of him.
I’ve seen this happen many times for write-ins. The most irritating to me was the Maryland website which showed a certain number of write-in votes for Nader in 1996 but the state certified amount was several hundred less because they left out the totals for two counties. It was more than irritating to see these inconsistent figures on the state website but they wouldn’t change it and I’m sure no one got in trouble.
Andy,
President R. Boddie is an independent presidential candidate who was on the ballot in Louisiana. I believe Richard said in an earlier post that Texas posts a list of declared write-in candidates at the polls.
http://thechampionnewspaper.com/news/local/lithonias-r19-running-for-president/
Reported election results now as good as weather predictions for next 100 years ???
olde 1950s TV series with Johnny Carson —
Who do you trust ?
—
At Stake —-
about 5-10 $$$ TRILLION in L-O-O-T via govt taxes [on NET tax slaves]/borrowing >>> spending [LOOT].
How many $$$ per vote in GA Senate elections on 5 Jan 2021 ???
How many ONE day *residents* voting and then magically disappearing ???
There really is no substitute for being on the ballot. The Libertarians realized this a long time ago, and, whatever you may think of them and the effectiveness of their candidates, they make a supreme effort to get their candidates on the ballots everywhere.
@Andy,
In Texas write-in candidates are listed in each voting booth. The only hard part about qualifying as a write-in candidate for president is that a VP candidate is required as well as 38 elector candidates, and an early filing deadline.
Voting machines in Texas are programmed to only permit write-ins for offices with write-in candidates. Select write-in and you are presented a virtual keyboard. Type something in and it is recorded. Type Xyzzy Plugh and it will be recorded as your vote. Later they will examine write ins and discard Xyzzy Plugh since he (or she) did not file. The same would happen with Sanders, West, Gabbard, etc. In theory if someone typed in Carol that would be accepted as a vote for Carroll. They can automatically count write-in votes for Carroll.
In Bexar County, the number that was originally reported for Boddie is now reported as the total of attempted write-in votes. I have never seen a count of write-in votes reported in Texas. Perhaps their vote counting software detected in and stuck it in Boddie’s count (he is first alphabetically).
There are several smaller counties that reported all write-in for Boddie. If we remove these and the Bexar County votes, he would have 66 votes, which would place him in 6th among write-ins. Moreover, the other write-ins would be plausible, Carroll 2785, La Riva 350, Hoefling 337, 205, 114, 66, 56, 49, 36.
123 counties (of 254) reported no write-ins. If write-ins were as frequent in these counties, one would expect 224 write-ins. I think this is somewhat implausible, though it is likely that many indeed had no write-ins.
@DR,
There were irregularities in the appointment of the Harris County elections administrator. Maybe all votes from Harris County should be tossed.
Who would have standing to sue?
@Jim Riley – The new Harris County Elections Administrator (sworn in the day after certification) sent the ASP Texas a letter with the vote total for Brian Carroll (as well as the total for Todd Cella, who they also skipped reporting).
I think I tried Lamar County by phone 3 times and never got through. I managed to contact Howard County, and they changed their report from 10 for Boddie, to 1 for Carroll and 0 for everyone else.
If write in candidates are posted in Texas polling booths, this would seem to lessen the need for ballot access a bit.
@Bryce,
It appears that Howard got their results corrected before the state canvassed. Have you looked into Van Zandt? I suspect Mason, Hockley, and Sabine are also in error, but you are getting into small numbers.
The Lamar County website simply shows “write-in” as an aggregate number. This is also true for the precinct results reported to the SOS. I think this is outside the law. There is no distinction in state law between on-ballot and write-in candidatez. All candidates have an entitlement to have their votes counted accurately.
I think the SOS has a responsibility to ensure elections are conducted uniformly across the state. Lamar County has failed to follow the law. Note, it is quite likely the Lamar write-in votes will disappear as invalid – not for any candidate who filed.
@Andy,
The requirement is a combination of TEC 62.011 and TEC 146.031. TEC 62.011 is a requirement for an instruction poster, explaining among other things how to mark a ballot and cast a write-in vote. TEC 146.031 requires the list of write-in candidates be at the place an instruction poster is. It doesn’t do any good how to make a write-in vote unless you know who a valid vote should be for.
I should have mentioned that there is a filing fee associated with write-in candidates for all offices except for President.