On Tuesday, April 28, attorneys for City Council Member Greg Casar filed a motion for summary judgment to dismiss the lawsuit filed by defeated candidate Laura Pressley. Pressley sued after losing the Dec. 16 run-off to Casar, after a Jan. 6 recount confirmed the original result and the Secretary of State Elections Division repeatedly rejected her complaints concerning the recount. Pressley claims the recount was illegitimate because it relied upon electronic voting “cast vote records” instead of “ballot images” – though these are defined in election law and in common practice as identical – and also argues other irregularities, including consolidation of poll sites and other recount procedures she considered incorrect or inadequate.
Pressley was deposed by Casar’s counsel on April 16, and some of the arguments for dismissal are based on her answers then. The motion makes three main arguments: 1) Pressley’s primary claim, regarding “ballot images,” is unsupported in state or federal law or in common practice; 2) Pressley’s objections to consolidation of the polls were effectively waived when she failed to make them when the run-off was officially organized, and she’s been unable to demonstrate that this standard election practice prevented anyone from voting; 3) even if any of her “scattershot complaints” concerning the outcome have merit, “they fall far short of overcoming her 1,291-vote margin of defeat.”
The extended motion is aggressive – it begins by asserting simply, “Pressley refuses to accept her defeat,” and repeatedly describes her claims as “frivolous and without merit,” arguing that neither the facts of the election nor the law offer any support for those claims.
Presumably, Pressley’s attorneys will file a response in due course. The current schedule calls for a May 26 hearing before state District Judge Dan Mills on the motion to dismiss, and – should that fail – a July 20 trial. (Previously, Judge Mills strictly limited the broad range of discovery requested by Pressley, confining it to readily available and relevant records concerning the Dec. 16 election and the run-off, and to specifically identified records – not simply every document or even person having anything to do with Travis County voting procedures.) Before any further hearings, Travis County Clerk Dana DeBeauvoir is scheduled to be deposed by Pressley’s counsel on May 11 – whether anyone else will be deposed has not been announced.
This article appears in May 1 • 2015.
