Ken Paxton bucks legal precedent and secretary of state's advice in letting anyone examine ballots

[Yo_Mama_Been_Loggin]

right after elections

A legal opinion released by Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton last week will almost certainly throw county elections offices into chaos after November, experts say, exposing election clerks to possible criminal charges and materially reducing the security of every ballot cast in the state.

Federal and state law require that ballots be kept secure for 22 months after an election to allow for recounts and challenges — a time frame Texas counties have had set in place for decades. Paxton’s opinion, which doesn’t stem from any change to state law, theoretically permits anyone — an aggrieved voter, activist or out-of-state entity — to request access to ballots as soon as the day after they are counted. Such requests have been used by activists all over the country as a way to “audit” election results.

The opinion from Paxton doesn’t carry the force of law, but experts say it will almost certainly serve as the basis for a lawsuit by right-wing activists. The opinion has already affected election administrators across the state, who told Votebeat that they’ve seen an onslaught of requests since Paxton released it.

Paxton’s office wants "to throw a monkey wrench into the operations of vote counting, especially if they think they might lose, and Paxton is in a close race as far as I can tell,” said Linda Eads, a professor at Southern Methodist University’s Dedman School of Law and a former deputy attorney general for litigation for the state of Texas. She said she was “shocked” by the opinion.

https://www.yahoo.com/news/ken-paxton-bucks-legal-precedent-170917598.html

The GOP has declared war on Democracy.

[Nevilledog]

1. The fact that he's been under indictment for felonies FOREVER is just mind boggling

[TexasTowelie]

2. That tempts me to go to the courthouse on Wednesday after the election

to make a pubic information request to examine the ballots. I wonder if there will be any financial charges related to the requests? I imagine that security would be necessary so that nobody absconds with the ballots.

[yellowdogintexas]

3. ballots will probably still be at the elections office.

I also do not think they go to the courthouse, at least not here. There is no place to store them there.

My guess is that after the election is certified they go to secure storage. All Presiding Judges take home copies of the tapes with the total votes by candidate at that precinct, along with other documents.

We keep the total number of signed in voters, number of votes scanned and number of spoiled ballots also.

I have a stack of them that I can now destroy.