by: Sean Sparkman
Say you’re a Republican, and you’re in charge of the Early Voting Ballot Board. That’s the room where mail and provisional ballots get accepted or rejected, and where the post-election hand count gets done. Say you’d like that room a little less crowded with witnesses. And if anybody complains about irregularities? Easy. Call them a sore-loser Democrat.
You have one problem. Texas law. Section 87.002(c) says the board needs the same number of members from each party’s list. Worse, every member swears an oath never to handle ballots alone, only alongside someone from another party. Annoying.
So here’s the playbook.
Step One: Shrink the Libertarians. You can’t un-appoint them, but you control the schedule. Put two Libertarians on shift next to seven Republicans. Tell everyone the Libertarians are “not scheduled by their choice.” When they send you their availability anyway, shrug, “I only need them right now.”
Step Two: Keep It Verbal. Tell Libertarians not to bother coming in on the days that matter. Never put it in writing. Written things become exhibits. Verbal things become he said, she said.
Step Three: Manufacture a Shortage. Cancel shifts for Democrats and Libertarians. Then discover, to your shock, that you’re short-staffed. Shortages need fixing. Urgently.
Step Four: Fix It With Republicans. Go back to the County Election Board for more help. Take 14 Republicans and three from everybody else. Sure, back in July the Elections Administrator said on video they “cannot appoint any more from one party than another.” Don’t worry about it. Somebody at the Secretary of State’s office said on the phone it’s fine on an “as-needed basis.” Now it’s 23 to 12 to 12.
Step Five: Own the Night. Your team leads are already all Republicans, so election night is easy. Normally there’s a clerk from each party. Not tonight. Tonight it’s you and your team leads. When they go home, the mail-ballot numbers go with them. And if a race comes down to the mail ballots? With the Libertarians gone, it’s one Democrat against a room full of Republicans. Good luck to that Democrat.
Now, about Tarrant County.
We’re not saying anyone rigged anything. This year, all but one race on the ballot had a gap too wide for mail ballots to close. One didn’t: Tarrant Appraisal District, Place 2, where the second runoff spot came down to 2,261 votes before late mail, cures and provisional ballots were even counted. That’s the point. It only takes one close race, this playbook gets a lot easier to run when the room is 23 to 12, and the law exists so nobody ever has to wonder.
The Secretary of State’s office has since confirmed that equal numbers have to actually be scheduled, not just appointed. The Court of Appeals turned us down without saying why. So we’re taking it to the Supreme Court of Texas.
And this isn’t just a Tarrant problem. Every county in Texas picks its ballot board under the same law, and every one of them will live with the Supreme Court’s answer, in every election from here on. If 23 to 12 counts as “the same number” here, it counts everywhere. As Tarrant goes, so goes Texas.
Equal numbers aren’t a courtesy. They’re the law. Help us make Tarrant County follow it.
Give to the Litigation Fund: https://www.lptarrant.org/litigation-fund/
Contributions to the Tarrant County Libertarian Party are not tax deductible.