Sec. 127.124. EARLY PROCESSING OF BALLOTS. (a) The authority adopting an electronic voting system for use in an election in which ballots are processed at a central counting station may provide by resolution, order, or other official action that processing the electronic system ballots will begin while the polls are open for voting on election day.

(b) The authority shall state in the official action the intervals during the day at which the ballots are to be delivered from the polling places to the central counting station for processing.

(c) The boxes in which the ballots are delivered to the counting station may be returned to the polling places for use in subsequent deliveries. If a box to be reused is a sealed ballot box authorized by Subchapter C, the authority responsible for distributing election supplies to the polling places, or the authority's designee, shall lock and seal the box at the counting station in the same manner as for the initial locking and sealing of the box and then deliver it to the appropriate polling place.

(d) The precinct election records shall be delivered to the central counting station in the last ballot box delivered from the polling place to the counting station.

(e) The authority may restrict early ballot processing to ballots voted at particular polling places by designating the polling places in the official action providing for the early processing. The authority may restrict the early processing to activities preparatory to the counting of ballots by stating in the official action the activities that are to be performed before the closing of the polls.

(f) Early processing of ballots under this section does not affect the time at which the results of the election may be disclosed.

(g) If the counting of ballots begins before the polls close, the provisions applicable to absences from the polling place by election officers while the polls are open apply to the personnel serving at the central counting station. The presiding judge shall supervise the absences.

Acts 1985, 69th Leg., ch. 211, Sec. 1, eff. Jan. 1, 1986. Amended by Acts 1997, 75th Leg., ch. 864, Sec. 92, eff. Sept. 1, 1997.