Hays County Elections Administrator’s Investigation Finds An ‘Anomaly’ In November Election

After an investigation into the election contest for Anthem MUD, Hays County’s new election administrator discovered an error in the November election.

Jennifer Anderson, who took office on January 1, 2017, as the new Hays County Election Administrator, announced yesterday that the department had failed to tally 1,816 votes in the November Election.

During the early voting period, officials replaced one of the central data storage devices, Mobile Ballot Boxes, that communicates and stores information from the machines voters use to cast their vote.

Anderson said protocol requires officials to quarantine any equipment taken offline in the middle of voting and hold it for tallying. However, according to Anderson’s investigation, the protocol was not followed by the elections department.

After being taken offline, one of the MMB’s was not quarantined and was never tallied by election officials.

Anderson said the untallied votes would not have changed the outcome of the election for any office or measure with exception of the Anthem MUD election.

According to officials, the untallied MMB contained two votes “For” the Anthem MUD bond propositions. However, the outcome related to Anthem MUD was corrected by the December 2016 run-off election.

“I have notified the Texas Secretary of State—Elections Division about the situation,” Anderson said in a statement on the issue. “My office has already installed new policies and procedures to ensure that this does not happen in the future.”

Anderson said the lapse was the result of preventable, human error, and her office strives to conduct elections with the utmost accuracy and efficiency.

Citizens are welcome to contact the elections office if they have any questions about or comments on the process.

Anderson promised she will investigate any issues that are brought forth and make adjustments if they are warranted and hopes by sharing this information it will instill faith in the reputation of the Hays County election process.