Duplication

• Possible fraud review; or

• Returned undelivered by PO.

Ballots that cannot be read by tabulating equipment may be duplicated or adjudicated. Authorities over precincts that use an electronic voting system in which ballots are counted at a central counting station may direct by resolution, order, or other official action that the early voting regular paper ballots cast in an election be duplicated as electronic system ballots for automatic counting at the central counting station.337

Ballot duplication serves several purposes. Primarily, it allows for ballots that are irregularly marked to be counted so long as the voter’s intent is clear.338 When an improperly marked ballot is duplicated, the original ballot is preserved, and the duplicated ballot can be fed into an automatic tabulation machine at the central counting station.339

Secondarily, some voters are eligible to submit ballots through mail, email, or fax.340 In particular, citizens residing temporarily outside the United States, as well as absent service members and their families, are eligible to submit ballots through these modes.341 Ballots received over email or fax must be duplicated in order to be counted by tabulation machines.342

Some voters eligible to vote by email or fax may choose to print their ballot and mail it back to the United States.343 In these cases, the type of paper used by a voter may not function with the automatic tabulation machines. Therefore, these ballots must be duplicated as well.344

337 Tex. Elec. Code § 87.102. 338 Id. § 127.125. 339 Id. §§ 127.126, 127.157. 340 Id. §§ 101.104, 105.001. 341 Id. §§ 101.001, 101.104. 342 Id. § 87.102 (b). 343 Id. § 101.001. 344 Michelle Shafer, Ballot Duplication: What is it, what it is not and why we are talking about it in 2020, ovi.csg.org (July 20, 2020) https://ovi.csg.org/ballot-duplication-what-it-is-what-it-is-not-and-why-weare-talking-about-it-in-2020/.