The Gillespie County Republican Party will be hand counting the results from their upcoming primary. Last year their County Executive Committee voted to use paper ballots and the Texas Chapter 65 hand count method for their primary elections this year. I sat in on one of their training sessions on Jan. 16th and was very impressed with their organization and commitment to election integrity. They came up with a different tally form (approved by the SOS) and use the echo tally system, which ensures that all 3 tally markers have the same counts. A four-person tally team with one or more watcher looking over the caller’s shoulder yields 100% accuracy. See the short video clip below for an idea on how the Echo method works. I also included a photo of one page of the tally sheets that match with their sample election ballots, which have 37 races on a single sheet of paper using both sides. They count ballots in batches of 50 ballots and have found that it takes a team one hour to count 50 ballots. Not bad for 37 races! They are training more than enough volunteers to enable them to complete the hand count on Election Day within an hour or two of polls closing. https://richpaces.com/chapter-65-hand-count-using-echo-method/
