Latinos for Trump v. Sessions
Filing
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COMPLAINT AND APPLICATION FOR INJUNCTIVE RELIEF ( Filing fee $ 402 receipt number 0542-14386818). No Summons requested at this time, filed by Latinos for Trump. (Attachments: #1 Exhibit 1 - List of State Governors and Secretaries of State, #2 Exhibit 2 - Cain Declaration 20210118, #3 Exhibit 3 - Global Risk Analysis: Special Report, #4 Exhibit 4-1, #5 Exhibit 4-2, #6 Exhibit 4-3, #7 Exhibit 4-4, #8 Exhibit 4-5, #9 Exhibit 4-6, #10 Exhibit 4-7, #11 Exhibit 4-8, #12 Exhibit 4-9, #13 Exhibit 4-10, #14 Exhibit 4-11, #15 Exhibit 4-12, #16 Exhibit 4-13, #17 Exhibit 4-14, #18 Exhibit 4-15, #19 Exhibit 4-16, #20 Exhibit 4-17, #21 Exhibit 4-18, #22 Exhibit 4-19, #23 Exhibit 4-20, #24 Exhibit 4-21, #25 Exhibit 4-22, #26 Exhibit 4-23, #27 Exhibit 4-24, #28 Exhibit 4-25)(Davis, Paul)
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REPORTER'S RECORD
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TRIAL COURT CAUSE NO. 20-1782-C425
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IN THE INTEREST OF
THE STATE OF TEXAS
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) IN THE DISTRICT COURT
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) WILLIAMSON COUNTY, TEXAS
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) 425TH JUDICIAL DISTRICT
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HEARING
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On the 10th day of November, 2020, the following
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proceedings came on to be heard in the above-entitled and
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numbered cause before the Honorable Betsy Lambeth, Judge
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presiding, held virtually via Zoom, in Georgetown, Williamson
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County, Texas;
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Proceedings reported by machine shorthand.
Mandi M. Alvarez, CSR
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A P P E A R A N C E S
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SHANNON FRANCIS,
WILLIAMSON COUNTY ATTORNEY'S OFFICE
DANIELLE GILLIAM,
LEGAL ASSISTANT TO SHANNON FRANCIS
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CHRISTOPHER J. DAVIS,
WILLIAMSON COUNTY ELECTIONS ADMINISTRATOR
STEVE ARMBRUSTER,
CHAIRPERSON FOR THE WILLIAMSON COUNTY REPUBLICAN PARTY
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KIM GILBY,
CHAIRPERSON FOR THE WILLIAMSON COUNTY DEMOCRATIC PARTY
RICHARD STONE,
THE HILL COUNTRY NEWS
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MARCO ORTIZ,
PRESIDENT OF TAYLOR ISD BOARD OF TRUSTEES
JENNIFER FAVREAU,
DEPUTY ELECTIONS ADMINISTRATOR
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TONY DALE,
PRIVATE CITIZEN
JENNIFER MILLER,
ROUND ROCK ISD ELECTIONS COORDINATOR
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RON MORGAN,
DIRECTOR OF DISTRICT COURT ADMINISTRATION
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Mandi M. Alvarez, CSR
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(Virtual Proceedings Begin 1:41pm)
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THE COURT:
We are on the record in cause number
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20-1782-C425, In the interest of the State of Texas.
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Ms. Francis, if you would please announce for everyone here, I
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think that would be helpful.
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MS. FRANCIS:
Sure.
My name is Shannon Francis,
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I am an Assistant County Attorney with the Williamson County
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Attorney's Office and I'm here today on behalf of Christopher
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J. Davis, the Williamson County Elections Administrator.
I
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believe we also have with us Steve Armbruster, the chairperson
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for the Williamson County Republican Party and Kim Gilby, the
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chairperson for the Williamson County Democratic Party.
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THE COURT:
announce so we have a clear record of who is present, please.
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MR. STONE:
MR. ORTIZ:
MS. FAVREAU:
Your Honor, I'm Jennifer Favreau,
the deputy elections administrator.
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THE COURT:
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MR. DALE:
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Your Honor, my name is Marco Ortiz,
I am president of the Taylor ISD Board of Trustees.
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Your Honor, my name is Richard
Stone, I'm with The Hill Country News.
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If I could have everyone else
I see we have Tony Dale on as well?
Yes, Your Honor, Tony Dale, private
citizen.
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THE COURT:
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MS. FRANCIS:
And Danielle Gilliam?
Yes, Your Honor, that's my legal
Mandi M. Alvarez, CSR
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assistant.
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THE COURT:
MS. MILLER:
Jennifer Miller, Round Rock ISD
call-in?
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Someone has called in; who is the
Elections Coordinator.
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THE COURT:
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MR. ARMBRUSTER:
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THE COURT:
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(No Response)
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THE COURT:
Is Steve Armbruster present?
Yes, ma'am, I am.
And, Kim Gilby, are you present?
Ms. Gilby, you may have been muted.
If you could please un-mute and state your name.
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(No Response)
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THE COURT:
Ms. Gilby?
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MS. GILBY:
Sorry, sorry, my computer was not
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cooperating.
I am so sorry.
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THE COURT:
That's ok.
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MS. GILBY:
I'm Kim Gilby, I am so sorry.
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THE COURT:
That's ok, it happens.
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you how many times it happens.
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I can't tell
Democratic Party of Williamson County?
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MS. GILBY:
You are the chair for the
Yes, ma'am, I am the chair of the
Williamson County Democratic Party.
THE COURT:
And we also have Ron Morgan on, he
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is the Director of District Court Administration.
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please have everyone raise your right hands to be sworn.
Mandi M. Alvarez, CSR
If I could
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(All Parties Sworn)
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THE COURT:
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state the obvious for all of the parties.
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the 425th District Court, I was on the ballot this election
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cycle.
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Stubblefield who is the third administrative regional presiding
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judge and I asked him if he felt like there was any sort of
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conflict of interest for me to hear this election issue.
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my understanding that the purpose of this suit is simply a data
Before we get started, I want to
As District Judge of
I have just had a conversation with Billy Ray
It's
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collection issue, it will not change the outcome of any
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election.
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reported to the Secretary of State that was not picked up in
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the early voting through our new election system.
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It is simply to collect data that is required to be
Judge Stubblefield indicated to me that he did
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not believe that there was a conflict of interest but I wanted
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to put that on the table and I want to hear if anybody has any
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objection.
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democratic party; do you have any objection to this judge
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hearing this matter?
In particular, Ms. Gilby, as chair of the
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MS. GILBY:
Your Honor, I do not.
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THE COURT:
Thank you.
Mr. Armbruster, as chair
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of the republican party, do you have any objection for me
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hearing this election case?
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MR. ARMBRUSTER:
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THE COURT:
Your Honor, I do not.
Thank you very much.
Mandi M. Alvarez, CSR
Is there
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anyone else that wishes to be heard and state any objection for
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me hearing this case today?
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(No Response)
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MS. FRANCIS:
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THE COURT:
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proceed.
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No, Your Honor.
Hearing no objection then I will
Ms. Francis, you may proceed.
MS. FRANCIS:
Thank you, Your Honor.
Just as a
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brief overview, I'm sure you've read the petition but this
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petition stems from the recent November 3rd, 2020 election
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cycle, particularly in Williamson County Texas, where we held a
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joint general election where multiple political entities, the
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county, multiple cities, school districts, joined together to
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have a joint election that was overseen by one entity, in this
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case, the Williamson County Elections Administrator and his
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office.
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new electronic poll books from a certain vendor.
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equipment included some report generating software that would
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come based on the tabulation of those votes.
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in-person early voting period but before election day it was
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discovered that the precinct-by-precinct return reports were
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not generated for the in-person early voting ballots which was
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corrected by the vendor and so for the election day ballots and
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for the mail-in ballots, this reporting issue did not exist.
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Prior to that election, Williamson County purchased
Part of that
Following the
In discussing this with the Secretary of State's
Office -- and I'll call Mr. Davis to talk a little more about
Mandi M. Alvarez, CSR
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that -- due to the fact that the Texas Elections Code does not
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really address procedurally what an elections administrator
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could do after the fact to generate these reportings,
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particularly for electronic voting, the guidance and direction
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from them was that this needed to be presented to a district
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court for review and for an order authorizing the re-scanning
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and re-tabulation of those votes in order to generate the
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reports and so ultimately, that's what we're here for today,
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Your Honor, is to request that the Court order that the Central
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Counting Station reconvene and re-scan and re-tabulate those
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ballots simply for the purpose of generating the
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precinct-by-precinct reports which are necessary because we did
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a joint election, those reports go out to each political entity
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that participated in the joint election so that they can
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individually canvass and certify their own elections so it's
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very important.
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elections administrator.
With that, I would like to call Mr. Davis, the
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THE COURT:
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MS. FRANCIS:
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You may proceed, thank you.
Thank you, Your Honor.
DIRECT EXAMINATION
BY MS. FRANCIS:
Q.
Mr. Davis, you were just sworn in.
start by stating your name.
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A.
My name is Christopher Davis.
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Q.
And how are you employed?
Mandi M. Alvarez, CSR
I'll have you
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A.
I'm employed by Williamson County as the elections
administrator.
Q.
How long have you been with Williamson County in that
capacity?
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I've been the elections administrator for Williamson
County since April of 2015.
Q.
Ok.
I just gave a general overview to the Court
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about the background leading to why we're here today.
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have anything -- do you disagree with anything that I stated to
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Do you
the Court or that you think needs clarification?
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A.
I do not.
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Q.
So can you tell the Court a little bit more about
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what these precinct-by-precinct return reports are?
A.
Yes, thank you.
In any given election, the State
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election code requires us to not only release to the public, to
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the county, to participating entities and to the State of
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Texas, a summary report which is a final and unofficial summary
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of all returns for all races in an election, the election code
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requires us to release a precinct level, or what's termed a
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precinct-by-precinct report as well, and it's this incident or
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this error that we discovered the day before the election for
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the early voting in-person ballots that prevented us from being
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able to generate any kind of precinct report that was anywhere
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near correct.
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with our summary report and release it in an unofficial yet
We are required to have this report ready along
Mandi M. Alvarez, CSR
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final capacity to city, school districts and other
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participating political subdivisions by Monday the 16th.
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have a deadline, these political subdivisions, to canvass the
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results of this election by the end of Tuesday, November 17th.
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Q.
Ok.
They
And just for clarification for the Court, for
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the in-person early voting ballots, your office was able to
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generate the summary return?
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A.
That's correct.
As part of election night at about
7:01 p.m., we had already generated the correct -- we're
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certain it's correct -- summary results for early voting in
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person.
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By law, we must wait till the next day for any mail ballots to
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come in if they're postmarked by the 3rd of November and then
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of course on election night, election day returns were coming
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in throughout the evening.
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report which included all of early voting in person, all of
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election day in person and the majority of mail-in ballots that
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were accepted was released at about 3 a.m. Wednesday morning.
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Q.
Most mail ballots we had still received some that day.
Ok.
Our final report, our final summary
And so in this election cycle are you aware of
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or has anyone addressed any concerns with the actual tabulation
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of the votes themselves?
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A.
No, not to my knowledge.
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Q.
And so we're not here today because of any concern
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about the votes themselves?
A.
At least I'm not.
It's quite clear to my office and
Mandi M. Alvarez, CSR
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in consultation with our vendor, Tenex, that sold us and
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configured for our electronic poll book, that this was an error
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during the early voting in-person ballot coding that only
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affected precinct associations of voter's ballots.
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being given the correct ballot style, they were voting on all
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the precise races and contests that they were eligible for when
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they voted in person during early voting.
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precinct association error.
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Q.
Voters were
This is just a
Ok and that error impacted simply the reporting, the
precinct-by-precinct reporting; nothing else?
A.
That's correct.
The scope of this error only affects
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the reporting of this precinct level that we must, by law, give
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out and did not affect election night returns -- excuse me,
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early voting in-person summary returns or our summary report.
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Q.
Ok.
At some point after this did you confer with the
Secretary of State's Office?
A.
We did.
On Wednesday, the day after the election, we
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conferred with them.
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as were we.
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not going to affect election day in person because an update
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had been sent over the air to our election day electronic poll
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books before the polls opened on the morning of Tuesday the 3rd
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and we were certain that it wasn't going to affect any summary
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reports that we were to release in the early voting in-person
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summary report that night at 7:01 so we waited and we were in
Obviously, they were busy on election day
We were certain on Monday evening that this was
Mandi M. Alvarez, CSR
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contact with Christina Adkins, the chief legal director of the
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Elections Division of the Texas Secretary of State on Wednesday
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and she informed us that while we had the ability to go back
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after Central Count had adjourned -- and it adjourned about
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3 a.m. Wednesday morning -- we could go back to the early
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voting in-person ballot bins or ballot boxes and begin a
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massive sorting operation.
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reconvene Central Count Station to enable us to re-scan those
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ballots through a central count tabulator to generate these
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We would need a court order to
precinct level reports.
Q.
Ok.
Is that in part because in order to go back
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after the fact to generate the precinct-by-precinct reports you
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in effect have to run those ballots through the tabulating
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machine again?
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A.
That's correct, and the only way to do that is to
reconvene Central Counting Station.
Q.
And are you aware of -- does the Texas Election Code
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authorize you as the Elections Administrator to do something
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like that unilaterally?
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A.
If you mean by the reconvening of the Central
Counting Station, no, it does not.
Q.
Ultimately, was it the guidance of the Secretary of
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State that in order to proceed with generating these
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precinct-by-precinct returns that you would need to petition
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the district court and the county?
Mandi M. Alvarez, CSR
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A.
That's correct, yes.
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Q.
As you discovered this error by the vendor and as
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you've worked through how to resolve this issue, have you been
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in communication with both the democratic and republican party
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chairs?
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A.
We've been in communication with both parties' chairs
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and we've been in communication with the political subdivisions
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that are also jointly participating in this election and we've
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let them know about this very hearing.
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Q.
Ok.
Are you aware of any disagreement with this
course of action?
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A.
I am aware of none, no.
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Q.
When the process of what's, in effect, a re-count
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should the Court authorize it, will your office open that up to
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any observers who would generally have a right to observe that
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process?
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A.
Yes, the Secretary of State's Office confirmed our
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understanding that with reconvening Central Count, the ability
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for political observers or watchers appointed by candidates,
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parties and specific purpose committees, they are allowed to be
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present much along the same lines as they were during our
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normal Central Count Station event.
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Q.
And have you talked with the political chairs about
that process at all yet about what that would look like?
A.
Yes, we have.
Mandi M. Alvarez, CSR
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Q.
So ultimately today are you asking that the Court
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issue an order authorizing the re-counting, the re-scanning and
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re-tabulation of all of the in-person early voting ballots from
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the November 3rd, 2020 joint general election in Williamson
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County, Texas?
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issue that order for the purpose of the precinct-by-precinct
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reporting?
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A.
I guess, first, are you asking for the Court to
Yes, we're asking the Court to allow us to do those
things for the early voting in-person ballot cards.
Q.
Ok.
And are you also asking that the Court order
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that the Central Counting Station reconvene effective today
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through November 16th, 2020 on a day-to-day schedule as
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necessary in order to complete this task?
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A.
We are, indeed, yes.
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Q.
And if the Court does issue this order today, would
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you, as the elections administrator, understand the expectation
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is that you would communicate what that schedule is to all
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those who have a right to observe so that they could be there
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to participate?
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A.
Absolutely, yes, that is my understanding.
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Q.
Is there anything else that you wanted to express to
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the Court that you haven't had a chance to yet?
A.
At the moment, no, unless the Court has any
questions.
MS. FRANCIS:
I have no further questions,
Mandi M. Alvarez, CSR
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Your Honor.
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THE COURT:
Mr. Davis, just for the record, I
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want to make certain that you affirm the other statements that
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Ms. Francis made in her opening statement that the facts that
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she stated are true and accurate?
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MR. DAVIS:
Yes, Your Honor, they are.
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THE COURT:
Thank you very much.
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else who is present want to be heard on this matter?
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(No Response)
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Does anyone
THE COURT:
Specifically, Ms. Gilby, do you have
any objection to the Court signing this order?
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MS. GILBY:
Your Honor, I do not.
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THE COURT:
Thank you very much.
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Mr. Armbruster, do you have any objection to the Court signing
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this order?
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MR. ARMBRUSTER:
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THE COURT:
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Your Honor, I do not.
Do any of the other entities that
are present have any objection to the Court signing this order?
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(No Response)
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THE COURT:
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Thank you very much.
Anything
further, Ms. Francis?
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MS. FRANCIS:
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THE COURT:
No, Your Honor.
I will grant the order as requested.
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Ms. Francis, if you will please provide me a very specific
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order and make certain that you talk about it reconvening as of
Mandi M. Alvarez, CSR
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today.
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November the 16th, whenever it is.
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very end that Mr. Davis is to communicate and confer with the
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party chairs and also all of the other entities about the
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procedure and how that will take place so that they can have
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watchers there.
I want you to put in a time that that expires on
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MS. FRANCIS:
Also as you said at the
I did provide a proposed order but
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I will review it and make sure it captures everything and then
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re-submit.
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THE COURT:
Thank you all very much for
appearing today.
(End of Virtual Proceedings 2:02pm)
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Mandi M. Alvarez, CSR
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REPORTER'S CERTIFICATE
THE STATE OF TEXAS
COUNTY OF WILLIAMSON
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I, MANDI M. ALVAREZ, Official Court Reporter in and for
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the 425th District Court of Williamson County, State of Texas,
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do hereby certify that the above and foregoing contains a true
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and correct transcription, to the best of my ability, of all
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portions of evidence and other proceedings requested in writing
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by counsel for the parties to be included in this volume of the
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Reporter's Record, in the above-styled and numbered cause, all
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of which occurred virtually via Zoom and were reported by me.
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I further certify that this Reporter's Record of the
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proceedings truly and correctly reflects the exhibits, if any,
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admitted by the respective parties.
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I further certify that the total cost for the preparation
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of this Reporter's Record is $__88.00____ and was paid by
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_______Mr. Jeremy Bravo_____________.
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WITNESS MY OFFICIAL HAND this the _____3rd_____ day of
________December____________, 2020.
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MANDI M. ALVAREZ Texas CSR #9129
Expiration Date: 08/31/2021
Official Court Reporter
425th District Court
Williamson County, Texas
Georgetown, Texas
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Mandi M. Alvarez, CSR
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