This section sets rules for selecting election clerks, including party balance, who may submit clerk lists, deadlines, appointment duties, and when a county clerk may remove or replace a disruptive clerk.
Sec. 32.034. CLERKS FOR ELECTIONS FOR FEDERAL, STATE, AND COUNTY OFFICES. (a) The clerks for the general election for state and county officers or for a special election to fill a vacancy in an office regularly filled at the general election shall be selected from different political parties if possible. (b) The county chair of a political party whose candidate for governor received the highest or second highest number of votes in the county in the most recent gubernatorial general election may, not later than the 25th day before a general election or the 10th day before a special election to which Subsection (a) applies, submit to a presiding judge a list containing the names of at least two persons who are eligible for appointment as a clerk. If a timely list is submitted, the presiding judge shall appoint at least one clerk from the list, except as provided by Subsection (c). (c) If only one additional clerk is to be appointed for an election in which the alternate presiding judge will serve as a clerk, the clerk shall be appointed from the list of a political party with which neither the presiding judge nor the alternate judge is affiliated or aligned, if such a list is submitted. If two such lists are submitted, the presiding judge shall decide from which list the appointment will be made. If such a list is not submitted, the presiding judge is not required to make an appointment from any list. (d) The presiding judge shall make an appointment under this section not later than the fifth day after the date the judge receives the list and shall deliver written notification of the appointment to the appropriate county chair. (e) If a presiding judge has not been appointed at the time the county chair of a political party is required to submit a list of names for the appointment of a clerk under this section, the list of names shall be submitted to the county chair of the political party whose candidate for governor received the most votes in the precinct in the most recent gubernatorial election and to the commissioners court. The county chair, or the commissioners court in a county without a county chair, shall appoint clerks from the list in the same manner provided for a presiding judge to appoint clerks by this section. (f) Following an oral warning to the election clerk and with the concurrence of the county chair of the same political party with which the election clerk is affiliated or aligned, the county clerk may remove, replace, or reassign an election clerk who causes a disruption in a polling location or wilfully disobeys the provisions of this code. A vacancy created under this subsection shall be filled by the presiding judge, who shall appoint a replacement election clerk who is affiliated or aligned with the same political party as the original clerk, if possible. Acts 1985, 69th Leg., ch. 211, Sec. 1, eff. Jan. 1, 1986. Amended by Acts 1997, 75th Leg., ch. 864, Sec. 24, eff. Sept. 1, 1997. Amended by: Acts 2005, 79th Leg., Ch. 89 (S.B. 896), Sec. 3, eff. September 1, 2005. Acts 2017, 85th Leg., R.S., Ch. 828 (H.B. 1735), Sec. 9, eff. September 1, 2017.