This story is a continuation of an article published on Aug. 18 regarding several questions raised about the March 2026 primaries, brought forth by members of the Burnet County Republican Party. Read that story here.

Burnet County Elections Administrator Stephanie Cooper recently identified several small errors in the original reporting of the March primaries, but told county commissioners those errors did not affect the outcome of the election.

Cooper appeared before the Burnet County Commissioners Court during its regular meeting on Tuesday, Sept. 8, to present an internal report investigating the primary following several claims raised by members of the Burnet County Republican Party at previous meetings. The claims included allegations of improper canvassing procedures by former administrator Mike Evans, who took the job in January and resigned shortly after the primary.

Cooper said her review identified several small errors and less than a dozen miscounted ballots, but found that they did not affect the outcome of the election. She attributed many of the issues to what she described as a “lack of experience” on Evans’ part.

Burnet County Republican Party Chair Tammy Hullum previously raised concerns about the primary during the commissioners court’s Aug. 17 meeting. Hullum said that she did not feel comfortable canvassing the Republican Party’s election because she allegedly did not receive the official sealed results.

Canvassing refers to the official counting, computing, and tallying of votes reflected on ballots, which must be conducted and signed by each party’s chair. Each party holds its own elections, but contracts Burnet County to administer them.

“I requested the required records from the (elections administrator), and they were not provided,” Hullum said. “I have not received the sealed official returns. Results were entered, revised, and treated as final in (the Texas Election Administration Management System). I did not canvass the March 2026 primary election. I do not know who canvassed the county primary election.”

Cooper disputed the claim, telling commissioners she had reviewed emails and found reports that were sent to the Republican Party chair following the March primary. She added that the canvass would have required certification by the chair.

“I’ve gone through emails, and I have found reports that were sent over to the Republican Party chair,” Cooper said. “(The certifier) was either the county Republican chair, or it would’ve gone to the state.”

Cooper said she had contacted the Secretary of State for more details.

“I have put in a request to the Secretary of State’s office to get the actual canvass document,” she said. “Once I receive word from the Secretary of State’s office, I will provide all of that stuff to (the commissioners) and we can go forward.”

DailyTrib staff reached out to Burnet County Republican Party Chair Tammy Hullum for comment regarding Cooper’s statements during the Sept. 8 commissioners court meeting, but did not receive a response by the time of this article’s publication.

Ballot discrepancies

Some members of the Republican Party also claimed that there were hundreds of missing ballots that were not accounted for, which Cooper alleged were due to the former administrator’s lack of experience.

“There was a ballot transmittal form that was created in the primary that had an 8,021 number on it that I don’t know where that came from,” Cooper said. “I honestly think it was a lack of experience of how to pull reports, what numbers were supposed to go where, and that’s where I can’t explain where all those numbers came from.”

Cooper said her review also found that a small handful of ballots had been incorrectly accounted for in the elections, but the discrepancies were within the typical range for an election.

She added that some of the alleged missing ballots could have resulted from comparing the number of ballots mailed with the number ultimately returned and counted.

“There may have been some ballots that were sent out that never came back,” Cooper said. “So, if there were a certain number of ballots that were sent out and then we only got a certain number back… there would be ballots missing because they never were sent back to us.”

Changes ahead of November

After presenting her report, Cooper said that the elections office was working to implement additional training standards ahead of the next election in November to ensure that no blunders are made.

“We have a lot more checks and balances already,” she said. “I encourage (the public) to please come and watch our process, get to know how we do things so they can have a little bit more confidence.”

caden@thepicayune.com