Submitted by Chris Schuchart, incoming Medina County Republican repair:
On Saturday, June 15, Bob Oberlander and Chris Schuchart (Medina County outgoing Republican Chair and incoming Republican Chair) were informed by Jen Hall, Executive Director of the Republican Party of Texas (RPT) that Brandon Herrera, candidate for US Congress in district 23, had filed a petition for recount.
The petition had actually been received by the RPT on Thursday, June 13, 2024. Saturday was the last day for canvassing. Mr. Herrera by law had 3 days in which to file a petition after the date of the canvass which would allow him to file by Wednesday, June 19, 2024. His petition was timely filed.
The RPT did not send out copies of the petitions to all parties until Monday, June 17, 2024. Chris was sworn in to be the party chair Monday night and began assuming his duties. The first was to organize a team for the recount which needed to be finished by Thursday according to a 7 day rule written in the law. With the help of Pat Aken, the team was assembled and ready for Thursday’s recount.
On Wednesday night at 5:32 pm, the RPT sent a notice to Chris that Mr. Tony Gonzales filed an objection to the petition and after conferring with the Secretary of State, (SOS) the RPT rejected the petition. The petition was faulty in 2 ways. First, Mr. Herrera requested recount of 88 precincts in Bexar, Medina, Uvalde and El Paso. The law says a deposit of $100 per precinct must accompany the petition. Mr. Herrera gave a deposit for $8200 which was $600 short. The second and probably most problematic issue was the law states you must request a recount of all precincts in a county with an electronic countywide voting system. While only 12 precincts in El Paso County are in US Congressional District 23, there are 124 precincts in El Paso County and all of them had to be recounted since citizens could have voted for US 23 in any of those precincts. Therefore Mr. Herrera needed to pay $11,800 additional deposit and request those additional precincts.
The law also allows for one amendment to the petition. According to the SOS, Mr. Herrera had already amended his petition once and therefore was not allowed another amendment. Wednesday, June 19, 2024 was the hard deadline for filing the petition and that deadline passed. Mr. Herrera was therefore left with no further remedies and the recount did not take place.
Documentation of the petition and objection will be attached to the online version of this article at http://www.devinenewsmembers.com/.
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