State House
HD-48 (D) - Another Austin HD. Obama got 53% here, as did Donna Howard, the incumbent. The GOP candidate is former starting offensive lineman for both UT and the Denver Broncos Dan Neil. Also should be watched IMO without high "kid" turnout.
Neil (R) 24,982 48.51%, Howard (D) 24,997 48.54%, Easton (L) 1,517 2.94%
Howard wins election contest by 4.
Rather, the special master has issued his report. It now is considered by the contest committee.
The standard of proof is "clear and convincing evidence" that illegally cast votes or legal votes that were excluded would have changed the outcome.
After the recount it was: Howard 25,023, Neil 25,011.
30 voters filled out a statement of residence indicating an out-of-county residence, and shouldn't have been permitted to vote. If you reside in the county, but at a different residence, you can vote.
15 admitted to have voted for Howard, 8 admitted to have voted for Neil, and these were subtracted. 5 could not recall who they voted for (note that in Texas, there is only a secret ballot for legal votes). So even though they were illegal votes, there is not clear and convincing evidence that it would have changed the result.
2 claimed to still live in Travis County, even though when they voted, they provided an external residence. One said she stayed with different friends, and gave an address of a relative so it would be a permanent mailing address. The other was in the "process" of moving. She had changed her drivers license in July, and had filed for a homestead exemption for her house (this is only legal for owner-occupied houses). But on election day she still considered her daughters house to be her domicile. She gave the new address so her voting address could be updated.
So again there is not clear and convincing evidence that they resided outside the county, even though they gave an out-of-county address when asked if they lived at the address on their voting registration.
So after changes: Howard 25,008, Neil 25,003.
35 voters who were on the suspense list should have been required to prove their residence, but there is no record of them doing so. Some in fact did still live at their registered address, but it sounds like some couldn't be found. But there is not clear and convincing evidence that the failure to prove their residence was their fault and not the election officials. So there is not a clear and convincing evidence that they resided outside the county.
1 voter whose registered was not effective on election day. He voted for Neil.
So after changes: Howard 25,008, Neil 25,002.
4 4 absentee ballots were not counted.
It was agreed that two should have been counted. Each candidate got one vote.
One voter had not signed her application for an absentee ballot, and the election officials should have secured her signature, but instead sent her a ballot. When she returned it, it didn't match the signature on the application, since there was no signature on the application. This was counted, as a voter for Neil.
One voter had applied for an absentee ballot but had mailed it from Travis County before flying to Germany. Texas law requires absentee voters to be absent from the county for the entire election period including early voting, and mail absentee ballots from outside the county. The voter was out of the country for the entire election period, but had mailed it before he had left, before early voting started. Technically he is at fault, so the ballot has not been opened, but the voter claims that he voted for Neil, and had based his action from advice by a clerk, so the vote was counted.
After changes: Howard 25,009, Neil 25,005.
2 votes were alleged to be double voters. It turned out that they had similar names to other voters, so no change.
222 voters were mailed ballots outside the country, after having filed a Federal Post Card Application ("FPCA"). The FPCA application has check boxes that let voters indicate whether they were (1) Military or their dependents; (2) Residing outside the country
temporarily; or (3) Residing outside the country
indefinitely.
The 222 voters in category (3) may vote a federal ballot only. They were sent a full ballot with the non-federal races crossed off, but including a straight ticket box that applied to the congressional race only. When the ballots were returned, any extraneous marks on the ballot were removed with a duplicate being made. 191 of these voters also voted in 2008 using FPCA.
But there is no clear and convincing evidence that voters excluded legal votes, even though voters may not have understood the difference between living outside the country with no definite time of return; and those whose intent to return the USA is indefinite. I doubt that any voter could be definitely sure which category they belong in since they evidently retain some affinity for their country. I doubt that any election official could prove it either way.