Texas Administrative Code
Title 1 - ADMINISTRATION
Part 4 - OFFICE OF THE SECRETARY OF STATE
Chapter 81 - ELECTIONS
Subchapter D - VOTING SYSTEM CERTIFICATION
Section 81.62 - Audit Logs for an Election Management System's Central Accumulator
Current through Reg. 49, No. 12; March 22, 2024
(a) For any Election Management System's central accumulator to be certified for use in Texas elections, the central accumulator shall include a real-time audit log. All significant election events and their date and time stamps shall be maintained in the audit log.
(b) The definition of "significant election events" in subsection (a) of this rule includes but is not limited to:
(c) The audit logs for an election shall be retained by the custodian of election records for the appropriate preservation period.
(d) The "Election Management System" as used in this rule is defined as a system that consists of any or all of the following elements: functions and databases within a voting system that define, develop and maintain election databases, perform election definition and setup functions, format ballots, count votes, consolidate and report results, and maintain audit trails.
(e) The "central accumulator" as used in this rule is the part of an Election Management System that tabulates and/or consolidates the vote totals for multiple precincts/devices.
(f) An Election Management System that uses a central accumulator may not be used in an election unless the central accumulator creates in real time an audit log that includes a date and time stamp of each significant election event.
(g) An audit log produced by a central accumulator is considered part of the election records.
(h) A poll watcher may request a printed copy of an audit log produced by a central accumulator:
(i) After the automatic counting of ballots for each precinct is completed, the manager of a central counting station shall print a copy of the entire audit log to retain with other election records.