Election results will begin rolling out the evening of Election Day, and although winners will be declared and victory speeches made, the results will be official only after they’re certified.
That final step will come weeks later when election results are formally locked in and a “certificate of election” is granted to the winners.
The certification itself is typically brief and without fanfare, but after rioters tried to stop certification of the 2020 presidential election at the U.S. Capitol, the process has received more scrutiny.
In Texas, the governor, House speaker and county commissioners play a role in certifying state and local elections, but they don’t have much to do beyond approving the results and calling it a day, experts say.
“There is no discretion,” said Jonathan Diaz, director of voting advocacy and partnerships at the nonpartisan Campaign Legal Center. “The certification of election results is a ministerial duty under the law, which means it’s mandatory.”
It’s typically a relatively noncontroversial and formulaic part of the election process, he said.
“By the time we get to the point of certifying the results, state and local officials have already gone through all of the post-Election Day processes in state law to confirm the accuracy of the results,” Diaz added.
Certifying the results is a legal responsibility, said Joshua Blank, research director of the Texas Politics Project at the University of Texas at Austin.
The Texas Election Code states that public officials “shall certify the tabulations.”
“It’s not a ‘may,” it’s a ‘shall,’” Blank emphasized. “It’s an obligation.”
Even so, voting rights advocates will be paying attention to the Texas certification process.
“A lot of people are watching very carefully and hoping for the best but preparing for the worst,” said Kenneth Parreno, counsel at Protect Democracy, which describes itself as a nonpartisan anti-authoritarianism group.
“We’ve seen, unfortunately, from our state and federal officials efforts to spread disinformation about who is voting and the integrity of our elections here,” Parreno said. “Just because they’ve called into question the integrity of the vote, we’ve just been concerned that these rogue officials may try to mess with Texas elections.”
But under provisions in the Texas Election Code, “they shouldn’t, and they can’t,” he said.
On Oct. 27, the Potter County Republican Party in the Texas Panhandle filed a lawsuit seeking to block certification of the Nov. 3 midterm elections unless all machine-cast paper ballots were counted by hand. The lawsuit, without providing proof, warned of the potential for interference from artificial intelligence and foreign adversaries” such as China. But the Texas certification process already requires a portion of paper ballots to be hand counted to verify the accuracy of machine tabulations.
Certification is the last step of the process of canvassing results, which includes tabulating ballots and verifying the accuracy of the count. The Election Code states that it’s a felony if someone “knowingly or intentionally makes any effort to … refuse to count votes the person knows are valid or alter a report to exclude votes the person knows are valid.”
Failing to certify canvassed results would violate that provision, Parreno said.
“There are very clear requirements here about how our elections have to happen and what those officials are required to do. They’re required to follow the law, just like everyone else,” he said
If a public official declines to certify the results of an election, Parreno said, state law also says candidates and voters may be “entitled” to seek a court order “to prevent the violation from continuing or occurring.”
Who certifies Texas election results depends on the race.
Local canvassing authorities — typically a county commissioners court — certify local elections, such as races for city council and mayor.
After Secretary of State Robert Howden tabulates and verifies election results for statewide and congressional races, Gov. Greg Abbott must issue a certificate of election to the winners — although the races for governor and lieutenant governor will be certified by House Speaker Dustin Burrows, R-Lubbock.
There are deadlines:
- Local races have to be certified by the 14th day after Election Day, which falls on Nov. 17.
- State law gives Abbott and Howden between Nov. 21 and Dec. 7 to act.
- Burrows must certify the governor and lieutenant governor races on the first day of the legislative session — Jan. 12, 2027.
If there are efforts to challenge or undermine election results, voting advocates say that is likely to happen between Election Day and the formal certification of a winner, including candidates who may take inspiration from President Donald Trump and supporters who in 2020 filed dozens of lawsuits to contest his defeat.
“We can expect some candidates, especially those closely aligned with the president, to follow suit and try similar things,” Diaz said.
Voting rights advocates remain hopeful that certification will be smooth, quick and largely unnoticed in Texas.
“Certification should be like a boring bureaucratic government task that nobody thinks about,” Diaz said.
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This article first appeared on The Texas Tribune.
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