The Secretary of State’s office released the findings of Phase 1 of the forensics audit of the November 2020 election, which shows few issues with the process.

In September 2021, the office of the Secretary of State (SOS) announced it would conduct a full forensic audit of the November 2020 election in the four biggest counties in Texas: Collin, Dallas, Harris and Tarrant.

Nearly 4 million votes were cast in the four counties — approximately 35% of the roughly 11.3 million votes cast statewide.

The progress report showed the audit findings in four categories, the first of which was completion of the statutorily required partial manual count of the electronic voting systems ballots.

The second category was ensuring the counties completed the statutorily required Election Security Assessments (ESAs) and dedication of remediation funds to address any gaps in security.

The third category involved ensuring officials are maintaining the accuracy of the statewide voter registrations database.

The final category was to identify potential non-U.S. citizens who are registered to vote in Texas and who cast a ballot in the November 2020 election; individuals registered to vote in Texas and in another state; individuals who cast more than one ballot in the November 2020 election; and potential votes cast in the name of deceased people.

According to the report, Texas counties are required to initiate a partial manual count of electronic voting systems ballots within 72 hours of the polls closing. They are also required to complete the manual count 21 days after Election Day.

“The purpose of this requirement is to ensure that votes cast and counted on electronic voting systems were tabulated accurately,” the report states. “To be used in Texas elections, voting systems must be certified by the U.S. Election Assistance Commission (EAC) and certified by the state of Texas through an examination by the SOS and office of the Texas Attorney General.”

State law also requires a manual count in at least 1% of the election precincts or in three precincts, whichever is greater.

In Collin County, McKinney precincts 126 and 206, and Plano precinct 66 were chosen for the partial manual count.

Of the 5,764 ballots cast in these precincts, the audit found 17 count discrepancies between the electronic count and the in-person hand count.

The discrepancy was attributed to the use of direct-recording electronic voting machines used in curbside voting for individuals who are physically unable to enter the polling location. These machines do not produce a paper record and were not included in the manual count. The SOS office has yet to confirm this explanation, however, it will do so in Phase 2.

Dallas County showed 10 discrepancies, Harris County showed five and Tarrant County did not have any.

The second category, election security assessments (ESA), which are also required by the Texas Election Code, requires all 254 Texas counties to identify potential gaps in cybersecurity.

According to the report, Collin County’s ESA was completed in July 2020. The county requested $120,000 in federal Help Americans Vote Act (HAVA) funds, which required the county match $16,000. A portion of these funds were used for security enhancements including additional ballot scanners and security cameras. The report did not elaborate this any further on Collin County’s ESA.

The National Voter Registration Act of 1993 requires states to adopt and implement procedures to maintain accurate and current voter registration lists, as does Texas Election Code Section 18.061.

According to the report, there have been 224,585 deceased voters removed from the voter rolls in statewide since November 2020. Of that number 4,889 deceased voters were removed in Collin County and 14,926 were removed in Dallas County. The report states these numbers indicate the lists are being properly updated.

Although Collin County did not cancel any non-U.S. citizen voter registrations, there are 14 under review in the state system.

Collin County did cancel 19,764 voter registrations of individuals with duplicate registrations in more than one county. Overall, the state is in the process of canceling 499,362 duplicate voter registrations from statewide lists.

The last category was the number of potential non-U.S. citizen voters, cross-state duplicate voters and deceased voters.

Collin County showed 327 possible non-U.S. citizen voters; Dallas County showed 1,385, Harris showed 3,063 and Tarrant showed 708.

The SOS is reviewing the voting records that have recently been canceled throughout the state as part of the process.

Collin County showed nine potential cross state voters, meaning an individual potentially voted in Collin County and voted in another state or jurisdiction. Dallas County and Tarrant County both showed 12 and Harris County showed 27.

The report states the SOS initially completed a review of 236 potentially deceased voters who were recorded as having voted in the November 2020 election. Of that number, 169 have been eliminated as erroneous matches, leaving an investigation into the remaining 67.

Collin County showed three potential deceased voters, while Dallas County showed nine, Harris County showed four and Tarrant county showed one.

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