June 15, 2006 

To All Citizens of Red River County, Texas:

My name is M. Mark Lesher, and I am an attorney in Texarkana/Clarksville and was hired by Royce Abbott to investigate and/or to file the appropriate petition to contest the run-off election held on April 11, 2006 for the office of Sheriff of Red River County, Texas.  The laws concerning a contestant filing a petition to contest an election are very specific, and the time to file said petition is very limited.   

Our  investigator, Ernest Henslee, immediately filed several Freedom of Information Act requests to start the investigation.  This was done after the recount showed that Reed won  with 1,192 votes, with Abbott receiving 1,161 votes - a difference of only 31 votes.  The Texas Election Code, Section 65.013, is very specific in stating what a Register of Official Ballots must contain.  This is a mandatory statute directing that the presiding judge “shall” and “must” fill out certain blanks.  Failure to properly prepare a Register of Official Ballot is arguably a Class B misdemeanor.  Lorie Moose, Red River County Clerk, quickly provided the Register of Official Ballots, and, upon examination, eleven (11) of the twenty-three (23) voting precincts had incomplete, missing or non-executed Register of Official Ballots. That caught our attention because this Register has the number of ballots sent to each voting box, the beginning and ending serial numbers of the ballots, the number of ballots used and unused, the number of spoiled and defective ballots, and a recap that must match in all respects.  

It was my recommendation to hire a law firm that had experience in this area of law to give us their opinion as to whether or not there was a true basis to file this petition.  We hired the law firm of Jackson and Walker in Austin, Texas, and there was a former Secretary of State who is an attorney/partner in that firm.  After much research and consultation, we decided to proceed with filing the petition, as this was a case of “first impression”.  The petition was filed on May 11, 2006, and visiting judge, Andrew Kupper, was assigned to hear the case on May 12, 2006 with a hearing date set for June 8, 2006.  We then filed numerous additional Freedom of Information Act requests and thereafter discovered further violations of the Texas Election Code.  Documentation for the seals that should have been used at each voting precinct site was nonexistent, and the seals and the security of the early voting box was very suspect.  There is a very specific statute concerning the security of the early voting ballot box setting forth that there must be two (2) locks, each with a different key, that the ballot slot must be sealed, that the hatch bottom end must be sealed, and that the seals must be serially numbered for each election.  Thus, it became apparent that Sections 85.032 and 127.068 of the Texas Election Code were both violated.  Then it came to our attention that allegedly there were unauthorized entries made into the ballot boxes after the election.  Further, we discovered that no provisional ballots were filled out at any precinct.  Statistically, that’s impossible because that assumes no one moves out of the voting precinct into another and goes back to the former precinct to vote.

The scope of inquiry that Judge Kupper would have to follow would be that he would have to attempt to ascertain whether the outcome of the contested election is not the true outcome because either (1) illegal votes were counted or (2) an election officer failed to count legal votes or engaged in other fraud or illegal conduct or made a mistake.  Thus, it was our position (from what we had received) that illegal conduct occurred and that, at the very least, mistakes were made.  However, the case law is very clear that clear and convincing evidence must be presented to meet this scope of inquiry and a new election would not be ordered unless we could show that the outcome of the contested election was not the true outcome.  Thereafter, we showed up for trial on June 8, 2006, and, after an in-chambers pretrial meeting, the Court set parameters for discovery and a trial date. Judge Kupper also granted my motion to produce and examine various documents, and we proceeded to review these documents ordered to be produced by Judge Kupper on Thursday afternoon, June 8, 2006.  Our prior investigation showed that there was a serious gap in the number of voters that were documented and the total number of votes for Reed and Abbott.  It was our position that, if there was illegal conduct, it probably occurred in the early voting ballot box.  We examined the appropriate documents concerning the voted ballots, the un-voted ballots, applications for ballots by mail, ballots received by mail, ballots spoiled, and were able to ascertain the serial numbers for each and every ballot as utilized or not utilized in the early ballot box.  We (Royce Abbott, Ernest Henslee, and Mark Lesher) wish to commend Lorie Moose, County Clerk of Red River County, for her dedication and the exemplary actions by her staff in receiving and filling all of the open records requests (about 15 of them with numerous requests on each) in a rapid succession.  Further, Lorie Moose produced every document requested and ordered to be reviewed by us on the afternoon of June 8, 2006 with total professionalism.  Her dedication to her job has helped bring this process to a close with no stone left unturned and no doubts remaining.  She helped us tremendously, and she and her staff should be held in the highest regard for following the procedures required in this investigation in rapid succession without any complaints or hard feelings. She and her staff performed above and beyond the call, even in the face of legal requirements on our part that had to be met to preserve the rights of our client, and the people.  These legal requirements required us to state things that seemed harsh because of the nature of the legal system and the documentation that was lacking to prove the election.   

Thus, after we were allowed to personally examine the documents requested on June 8, 2006, it was my recommendation that a motion to dismiss this case be filed immediately.  Even though many election judges failed to properly prepare and state those items as mandated by the Texas Election Code and failed to deposit the original and the copy of the Register of Official Ballots in the appropriate envelopes and boxes and failed to document the security for the early voting ballot box and the seals for all of the ballot boxes, this illegal conduct and/or mistakes, even though mandatory in nature, did not effect the outcome, and the true outcome is acknowledged by Mr. Abbott as Terry Reed winning this race.  We are aware that there were hard feelings by many people due to the fact that Mr. Abbott filed this petition to contest the run-off election.  What may have seemed to be in total disregard of the feeling of the election officials, election judges, County Clerk and her staff, and all of the other individuals who were involved in this election, is not so because we did our jobs by the “rule of law” and with the evidence that we collected in the short amount of time that was allowed to us by Texas laws. We spent hundreds of hours willingly and freely to preserve ”our” rights as citizens of this country and would do it again if we thought it necessary.