Latinos for Trump v. Sessions

Filing 1

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?
A.

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?
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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?
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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?
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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?
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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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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