AUSTIN, Texas — On Friday, Texas Secretary of State John Scott released his first progress report at the conclusion of Phase 1 of the state's forensic audit into the 2020 general election.
The report outlines the initial findings regarding security and the integrity of election systems in Collin, Dallas, Harris and Tarrant counties.
Here is what Scott's office found:
- Statewide, a total of 509 potential cross-state duplicate votes were cast in the November 2020 General Election – meaning these individuals may have cast a ballot in both Texas and another state. Of those, 9 cast ballots in Collin County, 12 cast ballots in Dallas County, 27 cast ballots in Harris County, and 12 cast ballots in Tarrant County.
- Since November 2020, 224,585 deceased voters have been removed from the voter rolls in Texas – indicating the counties are performing their fundamental duties under federal and state law to maintain the accuracy of the statewide voter registration list and mitigate fraudulent activity related to potentially deceased voters. Collin County removed 4,889 deceased voters, Dallas County removed 14,926 deceased voters, Harris County removed 23,914 deceased voters, and Tarrant County removed 13,955 deceased voters.
- Statewide, a total of 67 potential votes cast in the name of deceased people are under investigation. Of those, 3 were cast in Collin County, 9 were cast in Dallas County, 4 were cast in Harris County and 1 was cast in Tarrant County.
- Statewide, a total of 11,737 potential non-U.S. citizens were identified as being registered to vote. Of these, 327 records were identified in Collin County, 1,385 were identified in Dallas County, 3,063 were identified in Harris County and 708 were identified in Tarrant County. While counties still have a significant number of pending investigations to complete, and have undertaken this list maintenance process to varying degrees, so far Dallas County has cancelled 1,193 potential non-U.S. citizen records, Tarrant County has cancelled one record, and Collin and Harris have not cancelled any potential non-U.S. citizen records. The final findings will be verified during Phase 2 of the full forensic audit.
- In a review of each county's partial manual count report required under Texas law, three of the four counties reported discrepancies between ballots counted electronically versus those counted by hand. The reported reasons for these discrepancies are included in the report and will be re-examined, investigated and verified during Phase 2 of the full forensic audit.
- Each of the four counties has dedicated at least $136,000 to enhancing their respective election security postures over the past two years – including both cybersecurity and physical security of election equipment. This includes funds provided through Help America Vote Act (HAVA) Election Security allocation to the State of Texas, as well as local matching county funds.
Another report will be released upon the completion of Phase 2 of the audit. It could include information that was not made available to the Texas Secretary of State's Office at the time of this publication.
To read the Phase 1 progress report in full, click here.
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