Travis County GOP unable to secure resources for hand counting in primary election

AUSTIN (KXAN) — The Travis County Republican Party was unable to secure the resources required to hand count ballots in the March primary election, according to its chair.

It means despite weeks of contentious back and forth between the GOP and the Travis County Democratic Party to reach a primary election contract, only Republican mail in ballots will be hand counted, but early voting ballots will not, Republican Party chair Matt Mackowiak told KXAN.

Travis County primary election contract reached, county-wide voting to remain

The deadline to gather the volunteers and resources required was Dec. 31, KXAN previously reported.

“To be one of the volunteers to count the hand ballots, you have to live in Travis County, you have to be registered to vote. And when we think about who lives in Travis County, more Democrats than Republicans, so you have a very small pool of people here in Travis County who can actually do the work,” noted Brian Smith, a political science professor at St. Edward’s University.

Still, the GOP chair worked several additional changes into the election contract — which was approved by Travis County Commissioners last month — that Mackowiak believes will help with transparency and safety. That includes getting additional data on who voted where.

“We will have cast vote record reports and other reports that are required to be provided now by a vote center location basis in addition to county-wide,” Mackowiak explained previously.

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