- (a) Section 123.033 of the Texas Election Code provides for the rental rate that a county may charge for the use of its equipment. (The rental rates are $16 per lever-voting machine, $5 per punch-card voting device, and $5 for each unit of tabulating equipment.)
- (b) In addition to subsection (a) of this section, the county primary fund may be used to pay the actual expenses incurred by the county in transporting, preparing, programming, and testing the necessary equipment, as well as for staffing the central counting station.
- (c) The county shall be reimbursed for actual expenses if the county's computer system is used as the central-counting-station ballot accumulator. (The county shall calculate the cost to be reimbursed by using the same cost-accounting techniques used by the county in charging county departments for use of its data-processing services. If the county does not have such a formula, then the reimbursement shall be calculated based on $1 per 100 ballots tabulated.)
- (d) The county chair shall submit all calculations for amounts charged for the use of county-owned equipment to the Secretary of State for review with the 2002 Final Cost Report.
- (e) The county chair shall not use primary funds to pay expenses related to the use of noncounty-owned equipment, including ballot boxes and voting booths, without written permission from the Secretary of State.
Source Note:The provisions of this §81.131 adopted to be effective November 19, 2001, 26 TexReg 9083.