- (a) A vendor (or the political subdivision, if no private vendor supports their system) must give notice to the Secretary of State within 24 hours of a malfunction of its voting system software or equipment in an election held in this state. The notice may be verbal or in writing.
- (b) Following the notice, the Secretary of State shall determine whether further information on the malfunction is required. At the request of the Secretary of State, a vendor (or the political subdivision, if no private vendor supports their system) must submit a report to the Secretary of State's office detailing the reprogramming (or any other actions) necessary to redress a voting system malfunction in an election held using the vendor's system. The report shall address whether permanent changes are necessary to prevent similar malfunctions in the future.
- (c) The report shall be submitted within 30 days after the date of the request by the Secretary of State.
- (d) Failure to submit a report within the required period shall be grounds to decertify the system.
- (e) The authority holding the election in which the voting system malfunction occurred may submit the report in lieu of a report from the system's vendor.
- (f) A copy of this report will be attached to the system's most recent certification on file in the Secretary of State's Office.
- (g) The Secretary of State's Office will distribute a copy of this report to all counties using the voting system in question.
Source Note:The provisions of this §81.64 adopted to be effective February 23, 2003, 28 TexReg 1377.