On Wednesday, the Top O’ Texas Republican Women held their first monthly meeting after the summer break, featuring Gray County Elections Administrator Randa Hiett as the guest speaker. Randa provided information regarding the upcoming November election, the election and voting process, and answered questions, with an introduction by TOTRW President Kathryn Green.
“It is my great pleasure to introduce Randa Hiett. You all know that name. She is our Elections Administrator and we call on her a lot. She has degrees in criminal justice and psychology. She is married to Kevin Hiett and has two very fun and active boys who keep her active and on the go. She has had the privilege of being our Elections Administrator for the past eight years, and in her life before this, she worked in security for Pantex. Please give a warm welcome to Randa Hiett.”
“Thank you all for having me,” Randa said. “Kathryn asked me to share some important dates and information about the upcoming November election and maybe a little bit more about the election process. As you all know, the election is coming up quickly on Tuesday, November 3, but the last day to register is October 5. So if you or someone you know needs to make changes to their registration, now is the time to do it. Changes can be made in person at my office or you can go to votetexas.gov, and I know many of the ladies in this room can help you make changes as well. We do ask that you never make voter registration changes via Facebook or any online app. Those apps do not communicate with my office, and that is information that you don’t want to share with the world. Come election day, I assure you I will have people tell me they registered on Facebook. So if you can help those people, don’t let them do that.”
“Early voting for the upcoming election starts October 19 and runs through the 30th. It will be in the courthouse in Room 104. For the first week, voting will be held from 8 AM to 5 PM, Saturday from 7 AM to 7 PM, and Sunday from 12 PM to 6 PM. That second week of early voting is from 7 AM to PM, so be sure to let your friends and family know that we are there through the weekend for the long haul. I also want to make sure you all know about the curbside voting. That is available for those who are unable to safely enter the facility and prefer not to vote by mail. There will be a cone with a phone number on it for curbside voters who can drive up and call the number and the election workers will bring the required materials out there to them to vote. We do our best to accommodate all voters. Election Day voting is also from 7 AM to 7 PM, but it will be at the polling place specific to your precinct.”
“As a reminder, you do not need your voter’s registration card to vote. If you are a registered voter, all you will need is a photo ID at the polling location. If you or someone you know is not sure what precinct they are in or want to check if they’re still registered to vote, votetexas.gov has all of that information available to you. You can see what’s on the ballot, polling location information, voting deadlines, voter registration, and ballot by mail information and you can even track your ballot by mail using that site. That site is the one stop shop for voter information, but I have also made an attempt to build a website as well. It is not nearly as nice as votetexas.gov, but it does have our local updates, sample ballots, and early voting rosters and it’s updated daily throughout the election process. That website is co.gray.tx.us”
“I also wanted to share a little information about vote by mail because I know the media has given that some bad attention. Any registered voter who meets the qualifications may vote by mail. You have to be either 65 years or older, sick or disabled, you maybe out of the county on Election Day or during early voting, or expect to give birth three weeks before or after Election Day. The deadline for those applications is October 23, but the sooner I receive them, the more time you all have to get them back in and get the ballot. When the voter completes the application, they have to either add their driver’s license number or the last four of their social security number. This number is validated against their voter’s registration file, so we can see they are who they say they are. Then when that process is completed, we mail the ballot out. When it’s returned, we cannot accept the ballot unless that number matches and we also compare the signatures. The ballot is not counted until the Early Voting Ballot Board completes the verification process. Ballots can only be returned via mail with the exception of Election Day. On Election Day, the voter may hand deliver the ballot to my office and they must present a photo ID at that time and sign a roster in order to hand deliver it. The Early Voting Ballot Board, which is responsible for accepting and rejecting the ballots, is appointed by the political parties and they meet several times during the course of the election to review and verify the ballots. They are the ones who make sure the identifying numbers and signatures match, and they are responsible for accepting and rejecting. They also ensure that all the ballots are verified and counted by the time polls close on election night so there’s numbers are finalized on election night.”
“I am proud to say that Texas has made election integrity a priority, not only making sure all of the ballots are mailed and counted by election night, but requiring that the equipment used in the elections are tested in house. They call these tests Logic and Accuracy tests, and they are completed prior to the election, during the election, and at the close of election night. They use test ballots so it’s made by a group who know exactly what the results should be. They create the ballots, the test them, and they know what the results should be. These tests ballots are used on the same equipment that is used in the polling locations and the results are verified. The tests are done prior to early voting, in fact these tests were done today in the office. They’re also done prior the election results and again after the election. It’s just to make sure those numbers are what they should be and throughout the whole process they stay what they should be.”
“Additionally, after every election, there is a manual recount. After election night and all the counts are made and reported and all the numbers are released, it is a legal requirement that every ballot is manually counted. So there’s a recount to verify that what is tallied on the machine is in fact what is written on the ballot. It’s a time consuming process, but it gives me great confidence in our voting system. It is recording what we are putting on the ballot. In saying that, I want to make sure you look at the ballot when it prints out. I think a lot of people get rushed and print out their ballot and don’t look to make sure it says what they put on there. I encourage you to look at that ballot because that is what I use to verify the machines. I do think it brings some confidence to know that after it’s all done, they are recounted and the numbers always match.”
“I also wanted to talk about a unique write-in opportunity. There is always a list of certified write-ins, and they will be located at each booth. There are write-in opportunities for the United States Senator, the Governor, and the Leuitenent Govornor, and also a unique one for the 31st Judicial District, District Attorney, which is us. This race will only have a write-in option, so when you see it on your ballot, you’ll see 31st Judicial District, District Attorney. If you want to vote for the write-in, you have to select it and write in the name. The only certified write-in is Leslie Timmons. Leslie was appointed by the Govenor after Franklin McDonough resigned to run for the district judge position. No one else stepped up to run for the office on the primary ballot, so it was blank. The Governor filled the position in May with Leslie, so she is currently in the office. But the Governor’s appointment was only to the end of this year, so that’s why there’s no name listed because no one was in the primary and why she is a write-in. In order for her to fill the unexpired term, she has to be elected as a write-in candidate. I just wanted to make sure that you were aware of that on the ballot.”
“Last thing is a reminder is that House Bill 25 removed the option for straight-party voting. It’s an inconvience, but it’s no longer legal for us to put a straight-party single-click option on your ballot. So you’ll have to click through the ballot to vote for each race. The Republican candidate is going to be the first person listed on each race, so if that’s how you want to vote, you’ll have to select the first candidate on there. I encourage you to go all the way through because like I said with Leslie, if you don’t select that selection, there’s no voting for anyone. It is a long ballot, but make sure you click through and check it all.”
Q&A
• For Leslie Timmons, if you do the mail-in ballots and you can’t remember her name-if there aren’t enough write-ins for her, does her term just go to the end of this year or does she get a longer term?
“If you do the mail-in ballots, there’s a list that comes in with it so that will be available. If she receives a single vote, she’s elected. So surely she will get that vote.”
• Do the poll workers have to be trained every year?
“They have to be trained every election.”
• Are there any amendments on this one?
“Not on this ballot. There is a Miami ISD where they have a Trustee election and Groom ISD has a tax election, but that’s very few Gray County voters.”
• What do you think is happening with those states that cannot get their counts in at the end and are taking weeks and weeks?
“I really can’t speak to the laws on other states, I’m not familiar, but I can tell you that when you hand-count, you open it up to so much human error. Just because maybe one person is tired and forgets to hit a tally mark. I am grateful for the way that Texas does it. They only use two certified systems, and I love that I can go back and verify every single ballot. The other states are missing out.”
• Are you the one who actually tallies them all?
“There’s a group. Typically we use the same people from the Early Voting Ballot Board, so there’s about three to five people.”
• People worry about machines getting hacked, but ours cannot be hacked?
“Our system doesn’t have the ability to connect to the internet or you can’t introduce any other media to it. So it’s a closed-system, and the tally system can run by itself without internet. Also because of the paper-based system and going back, it’s just a closed-system so you can’t introduce voters who weren’t there. Our polls are sign-in where the numbers never meet the voting election equipment, so we have a name that goes here, but it’s not connected to the other systems. If you have four ballots with four names, it’s always a match and it’s always verifiable. You can’t add names without throwing off the system and triggering the alarm in the system. I would be able to see if we had 400 voters and 500 ballots, it’s just not possible. There’s checks and balances on all of the equipment that we use.”
• Is that true for all states?
“I don’t know if that’s true for all states, but I know Texas uses the same or similar voting systems.”
• Do you check the rolls to check the people who are deceased?
“Every day. The state sends me a list and in order to be even faster, I’ll check the obits to try to keep it as updated as possible.”
• How many states have to have a driver’s license or picture ID?
“I’m not sure, I just know that Texas has it as a requirement and I’m good with that.”
• Would you say all the santuary states do not require it?
“I honestly don’t know, and laws change every year. In fact, this morning I found out that another reason that you can request a mail ballot and it’s Texas Health Code 481 I believe, where potential repeat sex offenders can request a mail-in ballot rather than going into the polling station. That was a new one for me.”
• For mail-in ballots, is there a deadline when it has to be in to you or does it need to be postmarked?
“It has to be postmarked by Election Day. Everything we have in Election Day is counted and included in the results. The only eligible ballot to be received after Election Day is if it’s postmarked Election Day and received by 5 PM on the following day. So if I receive it by November 4 and it’s postmarked, it can be counted. Otherwise anything after that can’t be counted. I would ask that if you’re taking your ballot on Election Day, that you ask the post office to postmark it. The Pampa Post Office goes above and beyond for me on election ballots. They’re green when they go out, and they will hand deliver them to avoid the time delay by sending them to Amarillo. They will bring them up to me election night, they are just wonderful for me.”
• So instead of taking it to the post office on Election Day, they can just hand-deliver it to you?
“Yes, I just meant if you’re in Amarillo or something and if you can’t hand-deliver on Election Day, just ask the post office to postmark it.”
• What is the percentage of people who vote in Gray County?
“On a good one, 15-20%. On a bad one, about 5%. We don’t have a voter’s registration problem, we have 13,000 registered voters in Gray County with a population of 16,000. So we don’t have a registration problem, we just need them to vote.”
• Do you expect it to be higher this year for the midterms?
“I want to. The work is the same for me, the hours are the same and they are long. Kudos to our workers for doing such a great job. Because the local elections are not contested, for which I’m grateful for, the turnout unfortunately is typically lower. But I’m hopeful.”
