1. (a) Where an electronic voting system that does not entail the counting of ballots at central locations established under the Texas Election Code, Chapter 127, Subchapter A, is to be used at an election, the election results shall be processed in accordance with this section.
2. (b) If the tabulating equipment is capable of separating damaged ballots, irregularly marked ballots, and write-in ballots for manual processing, the equipment may be arranged so that voters deposit their marked ballots directly into the tabulator. The tabulator must be provided with a sealed container such that ballots deposited by voters are counted by the tabulator or separated for manual counting, as the case may be, and then placed by the device directly into the sealed container.

3. (c) In addition to the procedures provided herein and in §127.157 of the Texas Election Code (the "Code"), compliance with the following voting procedures is required for the proper processing of ballots to be tabulated by voting systems specifically designed as electronic precinct ballot counters ("precinct counters").

   1. (1) The voter may deposit a ballot directly into a precinct counter. If the machine returns the ballot to the voter because the ballot is blank, mismarked, damaged, or otherwise spoiled, the voter may either attempt to correct the ballot, request another ballot once the spoiled ballot is returned to the election officer, or request the election official to override the rejection so that the precinct counter accepts the ballot, and outstacks the write-in, if necessary.
   2. (2) The voter is not entitled to receive more than three ballots. The procedures for handling a spoiled ballot provided by §64.007 of the Code must be followed.
   3. (3) The precinct counter must be set up to reject and return the ballot to the voter rather than outstack the ballot if it is blank, mismarked, undervoted, or overvoted.
   4. (4) If the precinct counter rejects the ballot for any reason and the voter has received the maximum number of ballots or does not wish to make further changes to the ballot, the election official must override the rejection so that the precinct counter accepts the ballot and outstacks the write-in, if necessary.
   5. (5) While the polls are open or as soon as practicable after the polls close, the counted ballots shall be removed from the ballot box and examined for irregularly marked ballots for processing in accordance with §127.157(b)-(e) of the Code.
4. (d) If the tabulating equipment is not capable of separating damaged, irregularly marked, and write-in ballots for manual counting, a container meeting the specifications of the Code for ballots boxes number one and number two must be provided for the deposit of ballots by voters after the ballots have been marked. At the direction of the presiding judge, the election officials shall unlock the ballot container and process the ballots in accordance with the provisions of the Texas Election Code, §127.034(b) and (c), and then pass the ballots to be counted electronically through the tabulator for counting.
5. (e) In either case, the damaged and irregularly marked ballots shall be counted manually or duplicated for automatic tabulation pursuant to §127.126 of the Code. Write-in ballots shall be counted manually, and the results added to those for ballots counted by the tabulating equipment. The results entered on the returns shall reflect the totals obtained from the count of the ballots tabulated on the tabulating equipment and from the manual count of damaged, irregularly marked, and write-in ballots.
6. (f) In this section, damaged ballot means a ballot that is damaged such that it may not be accurately counted by the tabulating equipment.
7. (g) The returns, ballots, and other records of the election shall then be distributed in accordance with the provisions of Chapter 66 of the Code. Ballots must be returned to the appropriate authority in a container meeting the specifications of the Code for ballot box number three.

Source Note:The provisions of this §81.52 adopted to be effective June 27, 1986, 11 TexReg 2739; amended to be effective March 5, 1996, 21 TexReg 1526.