| (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 $5 for each unit of tabulating equipment and
$5 for each unit of electronic voting system equipment installed at
a polling location.) Removable components, such as a flash drive or
accessibility component, may not be charged separately.
(b) In addition to subsection (a) of this section,
the 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 chair shall submit all calculations
for amounts charged for the use of county-owned and non-county-owned
equipment to the SOS for review with the final cost report.
(d) The county chair shall not use primary funds to
pay expenses related to the use of non-county-owned equipment, including,
but not limited to, ballot boxes and voting booths pursuant to §51.035
of the Texas Election Code, without approval from the SOS.
(e) Pursuant to §51.035 of the Texas Election
Code, counties may not charge the county parties for use of county-owned
voting booths or ballot boxes and other county-owned equipment where
there is no statutory authority to charge for said equipment; however,
the primary fund may pay the actual expenses incurred by the county
in transporting the equipment to and from the polling places if the
county provides that service.
(f) Pursuant to the General Appropriations Act, 86th
Texas Legislature, primary funds shall not be used to pay the costs
of leasing non-county-owned equipment that is needed to conduct non-joint
primary elections.
|
| Source Note: The provisions of this §81.130 adopted to be effective December 13, 2009, 34 TexReg 8665; amended to be effective March 7, 2012, 37 TexReg 1483; amended to be effective January 9, 2014, 39 TexReg 209; amended to be effective November 9, 2015, 40 TexReg 7811; amended to be effective October 29, 2017, 42 TexReg 5853; amended to be effective December 29, 2019, 44 TexReg 7884 |
