About Us
We are patriots of Gillespie County Texas who successfully hand counted our 2024 primary election!
Like many, we are very concerned about the lack of transparency and current lack of integrity in our elections and at all levels of government. We believe that all elections need to be transparent and verifiable. To this end, The Gillespie County Hand Count effort began last August 2023 when our CEC voted on the Resolution to eliminate all electronic election equipment in the March 2024 Primary Election.
The naysayers said, “It couldn’t be done.” They said, “We would be counting for days.” They said, “It was a recipe for disaster.”
Preparations began as numerous trials of hand count methods were researched and tested. Week after week, with a dedicated team, a modified Texas Election Code Chapter 65 Hand Count method called the Echo 65 Method was devised and approved by the Texas SOS.
This unique self-correcting method and tally sheet allows for hand counters to be in a constant state of reconciliation, thus catching tally errors in real time resulting in exceptional accuracy and transparency. Hand Counting Teams are composed of 5 members – A Caller, An Observer, An Echo/Tallier plus two Talliers.
When the Big Day arrived, contrary to the detractors, we witnessed a remarkable initiative driven by a people-powered involvement from the ground up. Like a well-oiled machine, fine-tuned, prepped and ready for the job, ‘We the People’ accomplished the task at hand responsibly, thoroughly, and with a deep sense of achievement and purpose.
It was a recognition that it is time to return to our foundation of a locally decentralized election system and restore trust in our elections. In the end, Hand Counting was completed efficiently, cost effectively and timely Election night.
- We support widespread citizen grassroots action to restore trust in local elections by holding elected and non-elected officials accountable for conducting free, fair, secure, and transparent elections.
- We call for jurisdictions using unverifiable voting machines to immediately scrap their insecure and opaque systems in favor of absolute transparency of the paper ballots and hand counting.
Echo 65 is
Fully transparent • Verifiable • Easy • Self-correcting • Accurate • Secure
Discover the proficiency of Echo 65 and how you can return to Paper Ballots and Hand Counting in your county!