AdairLaw, PLLC 1112 18 th Street, #862017 Plano, Texas 75086 August I 9, 2024 Via email and US. Postal Service Elections Division Travis County Clerk 5501 Airport Boulevard Austin, TX 78751 traviscountyelections@traviscountytx.gov Thomas J. Adair tom@adairlaw.com (512) 431-2736 Re: Elections operations at the Lakeway Activities Center for the May 4, 2024 Municipal Election Directors Wood, Davis, and All Others Whom This May Concern, This firm represents Christopher Levy with regard to matters surrounding the May 4, 2024 Election in the City of Lakeway. As you are likely aware, there were significant issues with election operations at the Lakeway Activities Center during voting in that election. It appears the two election judges at that site along with others committed multiple violations of Texas election law. In particular, it appears the judge on Election Day, Judy Donohue, violated at least the following sections of the Texas Election Code on that day: • Section 61.001 -Ms. Donohue allowed certain individuals, who had already voted, to have unfettered access to the polling place even though they were not election workers or poll watchers. ln particular, Ms. Donahue allowed the Mayor of Lakeway, City Manager, and others to enter and remain in the polling place on Election Day. At least as to the mayor, this occurred multiple times during the day as well as during early voting. Not only did she allow him to repeatedly enter the polls, but to also use his phone in the polls. • Sections 61.003 and 61.008- Ms. Donohue repeatedly disparaged Mr. Levy, a candidate for city council inside and outside of the polls, including in front of voters. She also allowed election clerks to engage in regular conversations in which they denigrated Mr. Levy and his candidacy. This all created a tense and hostile atmosphere. Additionally, she was seen outside the polling place standing with at least two candidates and/or their supporters in a manner that appeared as though she was supportive of those candidates for an extended period of time. Pictures of her standing with one candidate are attached to Mr. Levy's statement. • Section 6 l .007(c)- Ms. Donohue failed to repOLt the number of voters as required. In fact, Travis County Clerk August 19, 2024 Page2 the mayor justified at least some of his entries into the polling place for the purpose of getting the voting numbers. • Section 61.010(b)- Ms. Donohue failed to require the election clerks to wear name tags. • Section 61.0 l 4- Ms. Donohue allowed the Lakeway Mayor to repeatedly use his phone in the polls on his many trips inside. She also held her phone in her hand for use throughout Election Day. Attached to this letter are statements from Mr. Levy as well as Ms. LaDonna Phillips who worked the polls at the LAC on Election Day. These statements substantiate the above violations and raise a myriad of other concerning events at the LAC during voting hours. It is clear that Ms. Donohue should not ever again serve as an election judge or election clerk. I look forward to hearing from you regarding the actions that will be taken to ensure that all future elections in Lakeway are undertaken in a legal, professional, and neutral manner. I also ask that you copy Mr. Levy on any response. His email address is clevyatx@outlook.com. Additionally, Mr. Levy reserves all rights to pursue additional action regarding the issues set forth herein. With regards, Thomas J. Adair Sworn Statement of Christopher Levy regarding election operations during early voting and Election Day, May 4, 2024, at the Lakeway Activities Center This past Spring, I ran for the Lakeway City Council ("City Council) in the election of May 4, 2024. Starting on April 22 and throughout early voting, I was often outside the Lakeway Activities Center (the "LAC") where voting took place. I was there during voting hours to greet voters as is traditionally done by candidates for office. My wife and I planned to be, and were, at the LAC at least seven-to-eight hours a day from April 22 through the 26th, more than eight hours on the 27th and 28 1 '\ and then the entire day from 7:00 AM to 7:00 PM on the 29th and 30th. As early as Tuesday, April 23, I noticed the Lakeway Mayor, Tom Kilgore, frequently entering the polling place, speaking with different election workers, then coming out and providing the running vote count for the day to other City Council candidates such as Matt Shem1an and Councilwoman Kelly Brynteson. Occasionally, he would report the voting totals in front of Councilwoman Jennifer Szimanski, myself, my wife, and our poll-greeting partners. During these times when the mayor was inside the LAC, through the large windows at the front of the building, I observed the mayor regularly speaking with one of the polling place judges, Bruce McAlister or Judy Donahue, talking with other election workers, and using his cell phone inside the polls. It appeared that neither of the election judges nor any other election worker attempted to stop this impermissible conduct by Mr. Kilgore. After watching this occur several times, late Tuesday or Wednesday of that week, I called the Travis County Elections hotline to file a complaint about the mayor having unfettered access to the polling place. The mayor played no official role in the election. He was not running for office, was not an election judge or clerk, and as such I was told he was not allowed to be in the polling place unless it was to cast a ballot. I was also told that the use of cell phones was barred inside the polls. I spoke with Andrew Alvarez, Manager of Personnel of the Travis County Elections office several times, but I did not receive a phone call or any other response regarding my concerns despite several follow-up phone calls. Additionally, I spoke directly with one of the early voting election judges at the LAC, Ms. Judy Donahue, 1 about my concerns with the mayor repeatedly entering the polling place. She had no response other than to tell me to contact the Travis County Elections office to voice my concerns. Further, during early voting, Ms. Donahue repeatedly came outside of the polls and greeted voters as she stood with my opponent Matt Sherman. She even appeared to rub his shoulder to console him. 2 As described below, she also appeared to campaign for school board candidate Phillip Davis for about 15 minutes on Election Day. Additionally, on several occasions, while inside of the voting room and in front of voters, Ms. Donahue spoke poorly about me and my team, even defaming me, including falsely accusing us of blocking voters from using the sidewalk. On one occasion, she exited the LAC 1 Ms. Donahue usually served as the Election Judge in the afternoons during early voting. Mr. Bruce McAllister usually was the Election Judge during the morning hours of early voting. 2 There were four candidates for three City Council seats. The other two candidates were incumbents, who were expected to, and did, win reelection. with another member of her election team to "brief' us on how we were blocking the sidewalk even though we were well outside of the 100-foot marker and in fact not blocking the sidewalk. She alleged we were causing problems for voters. Similarly, she falsely accused me of harassing a couple of curbside voters. In truth, the curbside voters I engaged were voters of mine. Moreover, all of the candidates outside the LAC approached the curbside voters in the parking lot prior to Judy moving the curbside voting location to within the 100-foot limit of the door of the LAC. At some point during early voting-on Thursday, April 25, I believe-Judy had the entire curbside voting signs and cones moved to within 20 feet of the front door of the polling place thereby denying all candidates the ability to engage with these potential voters. During the process, I attempted to assist the election staff by picking up two traffic cones to bring them over to where Judy and her team were moving the curbside voting. Upon seeing me she barked at me "drop that right now, we don't need your help" in an extremely rude and unprofessional fashion. In sum, the allegations that my team and I were blocking the sidewalk or harassing curbside voters were simply not true. On either Wednesday or Thursday during early voting I noticed that the afternoon Election Judge, Bruce McAllister, was in the LAC entryway taking photos of all the candidates greeting voters on the sidewalks in the area designated for such campaign activities. On several occasions, he came out and complained that we were blocking the voters from using the sidewalk even though we were outside of the 100-foot distance marker and nearly all voters were taking a straight line from the parking lot such that they did not walk on the sidewalk, to which we were adjacent. I'm not aware of a single voter that my team or I blocked, harassed, or impeded during early voting or on Election Day. On Wednesday or Thursday of early voting, I also became aware that the mayor, Tom Kilgore, who was overtly campaigning for the person widely viewed as my direct opponent, Matt Sherman. It turns out Mayor Kilgore hired a private surveillance firm to take video and photos of the polling place, including photos and videos of voters coming and going for the purpose of documenting my presence at the polls. My presence at the polls was not a secret because at minimum, I had made multiple postings to Facebook indicating I was at the LAC greeting voters. None of these voters were ever informed they were being surveilled and photographed by an independent private investigator on behalf of the Lakeway Mayor. Mr. Kilgore did this because he is the defendant in a federal lawsuit https://casetext.com/case/levy-v-kilgore. He wanted to interrupt my ability to campaign during the election by forcing me to sit for my deposition. He thought that by surveilling the polling place, he could convince the judge in the case to force me to be deposed during early voting. Mr. Kilgore's motion to this effect was denied because it lacked merit. On May 4, 2024, Election Day, my team and I noticed additional oddities, seemingly unscrupulous conduct, and even potentially illegal acts by the Election Judge (Ms. Donahue), the mayor, and some of the election workers, such as Nina Davis. 3 Ms. Davis spent her lunch breaks 3 Ms. Davis is a political appointee of Mayor Tom Kilgore to the Zoning and Planning Committee. She worked tirelessly for the mayor and his candidate, Matt Sherman, including as their social media leader. Sworn Statement of Christopher Levy Page2 throughout early voting and Election Day, repeatedly defaming me on the Lakeway Broadcast Facebook group and on the Lakeway North NextDoor.com group. My supporters were thus shocked to find Nina there greeting voters as an election worker given her extremely visceral and defamatory posts regarding me and my campaign. She repeatedly wrote on Facebook and NextDoor that my Campaign Finance Reports were incorrect and not in compliance with regulations. As a result, Mayor Kilgore filed an Ethics Complaint against me with the Texas Ethics Commission that was promptly denied for lacking merit. Just after the polls opened at 7:00 a.m. on Election Day, a voter, who told me he was going to vote for me, exited the LAC in frustration and said the machines were not working. The two incumbent City Council members present and I were surprised by this news. We agreed to find out what the problem was. I was not allowed in the polling place by Ms. Donahue. l pointed out that the mayor had been inside the polls frequently throughout early voting and reminded her of my complaint about that issue. 4 She then loudly exclaimed "oh, here we go again" around others. She did not accost or otherwise demean the other two candidates who were also concerned about the reports of problems voting. It turns out that when the polls opened at 7:00 a.m. on Election Day, the LAC did not have the correct sized ballots when voting commenced. Moments after I exited the building that morning, a poll worker, Donna Phillips, came outside to inform us that the location had called the Election Department's emergency team asking that the proper sized ballots be delivered. Apparently, the reason the machines were not working is that the county elections department provided 17-inch-long ballots but that 14-inch-long ballots were needed because that was the size for which the machines at the LAC had been calibrated. About 15 minutes after Ms. Phillips delivered this news, a county elections team member arrived with a stack of what appeared to be the proper sized ballots. The elections worker explained he only had "this stack" of ballots which looked to be about 1000 ballots, and that someone from the office would "return later with more 14 inch ballots. " 5 Additionally, approximately an hour after voting staiied on Election Day, Mayor Tom Kilgore and outgoing Councilman Louis Mastrangelo arrived at the LAC and began verbally accosting me and members of my team. As a result, I called the Lakeway Police Department's non-emergency line and asked them to send over an officer just to ensure that things did not She has repeatedly defamed me and made numerous blatantly false public allegations that I "stalked and harassed" her. 4 Earlier in the week I had confronted both Judy and Bruce about why they were speaking to the mayor long after he had voted. I filed an ethics complaint against Bruce for doing it with Travis County elections. I called three more times to get an update on how this clear violation of the voting code was being reviewed and never heard back. To this day I have never had a single response contact about this complaint. 5 After I exited the LAC following Ms. Donahue's degrading comments toward me, I learned f r om Ms. Phillips that the polling place was apparently uncharacteristically set up by 6:00 a.m. when she arrived. Historically, the polling place works and judges showed up at 6:00 a.m. to setup the polling place by 7:00 a.m. Please see Ms. Phillips' statement, which I am submitting to accompany this statement. Sworn Statement of Christopher Levy Page 3 escalate. The mayor laughed in response. A police officer mTived, talked with the individuals involved, and after determining that things had quieted down, the officer left the LAC area. The misconduct of Ms. Donahue, the election judge, continued throughout Election Day. At one point in the early afternoon, a couple arrived in a van to vote. Upon exiting the driver's seat of the van, the man saw Matt Sherman and said I'm voting for you as I started to say hello. He then looked at me and the sign I held and said "not you d*** head." I simply exclaimed "oh ok Hello!" as he proceeded into the polls. Shortly thereafter, I learned Ms. Donahue called 911 to request a police officer come to the site because I was allegedly harassing that voter. I also believe she called the mayor because about 10 minutes later, the mayor showed up at the polls. He arrived just before the police. It is my understanding the police determined there was no disturbance, advised Ms. Donahue this was not an emergency that warranted a call to 911, and they instructed her to use the non-emergency number for "these types of incidents" moving forward. The police then left the LAC. After they departed, Ms. Donahue proclaimed in front of election worker Donna Phillips and other poll workers that "he (me) will have to stay after 7 tonight to give the police a written statement." That, however, was never requested of me on Election Day or at any time since. As he had during early voting, on numerous occasions throughout Election Day, the Lakeway mayor went in and out of the polling place where it is my understanding he repeatedly discussed the election with Ms. Donahue. Several voters exited the polls and told me that inside the polls Ms. Donahue was talking about me in a derogatory manner referring to me as a "bomb thrower" and "harasser." To this end, I was told she told multiple election workers that they need to watch out for me. Along with several other individuals, I witnessed the mayor and Ms. Donahue repeatedly speaking alone in the hallway outside the voting room. From their demeanor and frequency of these impromptu meetings, it became clear that the Lakeway mayor and Election Judge Judy Donahue were coordinating their activities on Election Day to support a specific candidate, Matt Sherman. Like she did on multiple occasions during early voting, several times on Election Day, Ms. Donahue exited the polls, approached candidate Matt Sherman, rubbed his shoulder and arm in a consoling manner, told him "it will be okay," and stood with him for periods of five to ten minutes greeting voters with him. (I am attaching a picture of this behavior as Exhibit A to this statement.) At one point, she approached folks on school board candidate Phillip Davis's team, including his wife and son and an unknown friend, she loudly encouraged them to "keep doing what you are doing and you are going to win." She stood with these individuals for approximately 15 minutes waiving at cars as they entered the parking lot and thus it appeared she was campaigning for Dr. Davis. At some point after 5 p.m. on Election Day, an election worker inside the polls-the only Republican poll worker that I am aware of-Donna Phillips, exited the polls in a hurry. I asked her why she was leaving and she said she could not be part of what was going on inside any longer and she characterized things there as "disgusting." Throughout election day she had been providing me and my polling team with numerous warnings that "they are targeting you," "what's going on in there isn't right," and "they are preventing me from seeing what's going on Sworn Statement of Christopher Levy Page 4 inside." Subsequently, I spoke with her at length about what she witnessed and she provided me with a statement, which I am providing along with this statement and my complaint. Based on all of my observations of the behavior and actions of Judy Donahue, Nina Davis and Tom Kilgore, it is my opinion that they worked in a coordinated manner to interfere with the election and to destroy any possibility that I might be successfully elected as a Lakeway City Council Member. It is also my opinion that Judy Donahue and Nina Davis should be banned from ever working as an Election Judge in Travis County for life at minimum. They have both clearly demonstrated a lack of respect for our election code and laws and a clear ability to disrupt and interfere with a lawfully conducted election. I swear to the truth and accuracy of the foregoing information to the best of my ability. Date 4 SWORN TO AND SUBSCRIBED before me on the I 6th day of August 2024. s-�!r,f: 1 ,� NILESH PATEL iff��l Notary Public, Stet, of T11111 \��$ Comm. Expires 12-13-2026 �,,,;Af"''' ,$' Notary ID 128488399 Sworn Statement of Christopher Levy �Zt? }/ Notary Public in and for the State of Texas Commission Expires: Page 5 Statement of Election Clerk LaDonna Phillips regarding election operations at the Lakeway Activities Center on May 4, 2024 I provide the following statement in the hope that it will help improve elections operations at the Lakeway Elections Center (the “LAC”) in future elections. I have enjoyed my prior work as an election clerk in Travis County, and I hope to participate as an election clerk in future elections even though my experience at the LAC on May 4, 2024 was frustrating, disappointing, and even alarming. I do not want to work with the team at the LAC that I worked with on that day ever again. I do not believe they conducted themselves in a professional, fair, impartial, lawful, or independent manner. And here at the outset of this statement, I want to express my appreciation for the outreach and concern from the Travis County Elections office regarding my experience and hope this statement helps improve operations. I worked at the LAC on May 4, 2024, Election Day, at the direction of Election Judge Ms. Judy Donohue. Although she reported that I arrived at 6:30 a.m., I was there at 6:00 a.m. Around 5:00 p.m. I was told I could leave and go home for the day. I feel the intentional falsification of the arrival time my timesheet was hateful, discriminating, and wrong. I wonder if this occurred because I was the only Republican Election worker at the LAC. I was clearly the new person or outsider among an election crew that knew each other well. Based on my experience, it seems as though the LAC election crew will gang up on others. This includes Wanda, Walt, Nina, Anna with supervision by Judge Judy Donohue. I found the environment at the LAC to be so unpleasant and I was so intimidated by the election judge and other workers there that I did not vote that day as I originally planned to do. What follows is a recitation of my day as a Travis County Election Clerk at the LAC on May 4, 2024. Summary of events and impressions: -- Falsification of my timesheet. I arrived at the LAC at 6:00 a.m., and I have a timesheet with an automatic timestamp on it to prove this. (A picture of this timesheet with the 6:00 a.m. arrival is attached to this statement.) It is my understanding that Ms. Donahue reported that I arrived at 6:30 a.m. based on a call from the Travis County Elections Department. Why did Ms. Donahue say I arrived at 6:30 a.m., showing me as 30 minutes late? Why would she say I was a "late election worker"? This is personally harmful. -- Election workers did not have the correct identification. We didn't wear ANY IDENTFICATION or name tags for a good portion of the day. At some point someone found blank stickers and we could put anything we want on it. Additionally, equity was not visible among the workers. -- Ms. Donahue refused to allow me to sit at the table in an empty chair, behind an empty tablet, in the Election Room. Docusign Envelope ID: 1EE34F2B-2B8B-4B5D-A513-96C41D574BA1 Statement by LaDonna Phillips Page 2 -- Ms. Donahue refused to allow me to sign on to a tablet or be able to check in a voter under my ID. In order to check in voters during curbside voting, I had to request a tablet from a reluctant worker, signed in under their ID in order. This made the entire process unnecessarily harder and longer on the voter and the worker. -- I was directed to stay in the parking lot and lobby area. Ms. Donahue intentionally kept me away from others, out of the actual "voting room area" and out of site of the voting process. -- Ms. Donahue allowed a hostile work environment. She was biased against certain candidates and discussed election matters with the other workers and excluded me from various conversations. I learned they had all worked together the prior week. -- Starting around 8:00 a.m. and for the rest of the day, I was isolated in the Lobby and parking lot aka "curb side voters". She would not let me work in the election room. -- Ms. Donahue was clearly much more concerned about a candidate in the parking lot and activity outside the LAC than the voting operations inside. -- Ms. Donahue made her own rules for breaks, lunch, and time. At 3:00 pm, she told me to go to lunch and take as long as I wanted. -- Ms. Donahue had her cell phone in hand all day following a call to the elections department at 7:15 a.m. requesting help with the ballot machine that was rejecting ballots because they had the wrong sized ballots. She acted anxious and nervous throughout the day. It seemed as though she was holding her phone at the ready to call for help, such as from the police or the elections department, at the first sign of what she perceived as a problem. -- Ms. Donahue appeared biased, and she broke her oath to be neutral at this election. While I was in the polling place, I heard Ms. Donahue refer to the candidate in the parking lot, Mr. Levy, as a "bomber" of trouble, destruction, causing problems and upsetting people. She claimed he harasses people and voters. She allowed the other workers to name him as a bully and a hater. He was a common topic of conversation among her and the election workers. During these discussions they made it clear who they were talking about and there were voters in the room. -- I witnessed Ms. Donahue allow non-voters into the polling place and be pleasant towards them. Unlike her general hostility towards Mr. Levy, she was pleasant toward certain individuals such as the Lakeway Mayor, city manager, and others who entered the polls during the day. She actually spoke at length with them and gave considerable details about the issues with the voting machines in the morning and the election in general. -- By 8:00 a.m., I was assigned to areas outside of the election room. I was told to keep an eye on the "harassing trouble makers" in the parking lot, instructed to greet voters, and told to help Docusign Envelope ID: 1EE34F2B-2B8B-4B5D-A513-96C41D574BA1 Statement by LaDonna Phillips Page 3 with curbside voting. I had 3 curbside voters all day. I was not given a tablet to work on or allowed to log onto a tablet. I was required to borrow another worker's tablet, logged on as that other worker, in order to record the three curbside voters. Additionally, I never saw the “trouble maker,” Mr. Levy, engage in any harassing or hostile conduct despite Ms. Donahue’s repeated statements that he was harassing voters. -- Ms. Donahue was also unsupportive and rude to the one poll watcher who arrived during the day. I heard her say to the poll watcher that she has no idea what a watcher does or what she will have her do. I saw her physically shaken. -- Ms. Donahue was rude to voter. She was dismissive toward and told one voter that it was not important for him to see "his ballot was counted message" on the machine and that he should move on. She said he should trust her that it would be counted. -- Ms. Donahue acted emotionally immature, inexperienced, and unstable. She was unable to resolve conflicts peacefully. She was visibly hostile to various voters. She was also visibly shaken first thing in the morning when there was a malfunction due to the wrong ballot size papers being used. She also was visibly shaken when challenged with different perspectives, different facts, or different opinions. -- Ms. Donahue also seemed nervous and anxious throughout the day. When the police arrived at one point, she acted like she had been victimized. She expressed a desire to have police or security on site all day. To this end, when I returned from my late lunch break around 3:00 p.m., two police officers were in the polling place. While I do not know why the police were present, I heard them admonish Ms. Donahue and say do not call 911 for non-emergencies. Timeline: 6:00 - 6:05 – Arrival - Walked through the parking lot and areas, noticed all signs are posted both inside & outside including curbside voting in the parking lot, and all 3 doorways and halls in the Lakeway Center Lobby going toward the Voting Area had their signs posted. (I thought wow, we don't have to set up outside and inside looks done so far too,) 6:05 - 6:10 - I get to the very back of the building where voting takes place. All signs are in place there as well. As I walk in, the voting tables are the first thing you see. I see 2 ladies sitting there, at the table with tablets turned on in front of them appearing ready to take a voter. There was no setup of anything required, it was done before 6 am. I have never experienced this before when working another election, but I was grateful no labor or activity was required of me because I was recovering from hip surgery. 6:10 - 6:15 - As I walked in, I noticed all of the other workers were already seated at tables with all the machines hooked up. It was as if 95% of the entire place was set up. Even the privacy shields on each of the 10-12 machines were up and the machines were plugged in and ready to go. Even the ballot box was ready to go and there was literally nothing for me to do. Docusign Envelope ID: 1EE34F2B-2B8B-4B5D-A513-96C41D574BA1 Statement by LaDonna Phillips Page 4 6:10 - 6:30 - I was not allowed to check it. As I walked in, I introduced myself and noticed not one person had a name tag, or badge, or any kind of identification as to being an Election worker, or what role, so I asked for the Election Judge. I was told we can't clock in yet, something is wrong with the machine. And I heard, should we call downtown? "Not yet." Judy said. I was never allowed to clock in nor offered any other opportunity to clock in. As I walked up and introduced myself, I reached out for a handshake. The first worker surprisingly rejected this gesture. I was met with a hostile glare and silence. All but one of the other workers acted similarly hostile and refused to share their name. One gentleman was the exception. When I tried to make small talk, introduced myself as a new neighbor, and asked where they lived and about their responsibilities in the polls, I was ignored. The election judge, Judy, eventually introduced herself to me and said "oh, we are all clerks", as to respond to my questions to the other workers. They were busy chatting with themselves. I overheard something about conflict during this election and people that are in the parking lot. I put my things on a table, and asked to sit in a chair next to Judy's table where she was standing. She said put your things on the table, but then said I could not sit where I had requested. She asked me to give her a minute, as she was going through some paperwork at the other Election Worker Table, and pulling folders out of "The Box of Election forms,” which was already stationed, set up and open next to the open election Cabinet. As I stood there waiting for directions about how I could help, I saw one worker separating and stamping a signature on the stack of approximately 200 ballots. I started to walk over that way to see if I could help that clerk when Judy interrupted my approach and said, I want you to put stickers on the voting machine, for now. I went and put voting stickers on the machine. I stood by the machine since I was not allowed to sit at a table with the other clerks. Frankly, the atmosphere inside felt quite unfriendly and even hostile given the way the other clerks as well as the judge acted toward me. I was disappointed and even alarmed because I am a stranger to them. I am new to the city and neighborhood. No one knows anything about me. Yet they all knew each other and were friendly with each other even talking about themselves with each other. Judy expressed concerns about curbside voters and voter harassment. She claimed a group outside had been harassing voters and being abusive during the previous week. I asked her why they were harassing voters, and she said the guy in the parking lot and his group were trouble makers. He was losing this election and was mad. I reminded her I just moved here and was unaware of any controversy or anything. I was just asked to work 2 days ago. She said this group outside made it very difficult during early voting. 6:30 - 7:00 - Poll Watcher arrives. The arrival of the poll watcher instantly ratcheted up the tension and hostility inside. The watcher came to Judy's workstation, and I moved to a chair next Docusign Envelope ID: 1EE34F2B-2B8B-4B5D-A513-96C41D574BA1 Statement by LaDonna Phillips Page 5 to them. They had conversations, and Judge searched and found a poll watcher book. It was confusing as to why the tension and being shaken up by a poll watcher. She was perturbed by her being there, and said to this poll watcher, that she had no idea what the poll watcher should or would be doing. 6:45 - 7:00 - I introduced myself to the poll watcher and we had a friendly introduction. I waited for voting to begin, Judy told me I should stand behind the voters and watch them in case they needed help. The one gentleman who was a clerk was stationed at the ballot box. One worker was stamping ballots, 2 workers on tablets, Judy was at her table with a tablet and 2 chairs, 1 worker was standing and sitting by the ballot box 7:00 - We had 2 voters standing in line at 7:00 a.m. when the polls opened. The 1st voter’s ballot was rejected. I quickly responded. As suggested, we tried intentionally on 4 different machines and got the same error message and couldn't move forward. I stopped the process, suggested we wait, and spoke with the Election Judge. Tensions quickly escalated as no one could figure out why the machine was rejecting the first voter’s ballot. People were throwing out ideas saying what do we do. Do we call downtown, turn off the machines and turn it on again, turn off all machines? It got frantic inside. Judy then pulled out her phone, and called for help. From that point first thing in the morning through the rest of the day, I saw her phone in hand at all times. By approximately 8:00 a.m. I was told to go outside the election room and work in the parking area to direct voters and do curbside voting. Periodically, I entered the election room during the day, but largely I was isolated for much of the rest of the day. I was intentionally left out and in the dark on the entire Election Process on Sat. May 4, and the Lakeway Event Center. I was not even allowed to log on to an Election Tablet with my own log in, or to utilize an Electron Tablet as a clerk. I was only allowed to borrow a tablet from a logged on user to assist the three (3) curbside voters that arrived before 5pm. This went smoothly. Even the Secretary of State representative who was there in the morning complimented the process. At around 5pm, she brought me in from the parking lot/lobby area to the Voting area because she is going to start shutting down because of slow traffic. Around 5 p.m., I came into the voting area and all the clerks were in the same positions they had been in the morning. Even the same empty chair next to the election judge was there. I was given the opportunity to count 87 signed and spoiled ballots and to validate there were over 220 signed spoiled ballots. As we brought over the spoiled ballots next to the Judge and clerk, named Anna, I saw them reviewing the Tally form that reconciled total ballots, spoiled ballots, and empty ballots. As I began to get closer to observe, Anna turned her back to me and positioned herself towards the judge. They briefly and quietly discussed how to approach the spoiled ballots. It was my impression the spoiled ballots we from a different election. The silence, tension, and exclusion I felt was palpable. I was prevented from hearing and participating in the discussion and from gaining any information about what was going on. Docusign Envelope ID: 1EE34F2B-2B8B-4B5D-A513-96C41D574BA1 Statement by LaDonna Phillips Page 6 Shortly thereafter, the judge said she was letting some people go because it was slow and at the end of the day, didn't expect many more voters. She sent me home around 5.00 pm. I can be reached at 512-934-7655 and donnadphillips@gmail.com, and I am willing to swear to the statements made herein under oath. ________________________ LaDonna Phillips Docusign Envelope ID: 1EE34F2B-2B8B-4B5D-A513-96C41D574BA1 r-: DocuSigned by: ¼ B Q~ / Docusign Envelope ID: 1EE34F2B-2B8B-4B5D-A513-96C41D574BA1 ft ~ ~--~:~ 5~~?' Trl)••I. Covn l :f E,1 ellons I Err,pio',c,e, 1nronnalloll· (0 .. lj,(6 I u,.sr NAl, f 11 1.t. 1) 11 _ AA.,,: FI RS T AME Ud< PO Sl'TIO /? J~ r, 'M 1 &,.i (4. OC Al'f ON AME RA I NING tH.~,lfl Ch O ly Or,•: In Pl' n T, .nlng rnst n, c1ions Update our In formation Only If It Has Changod r:- 3S : • ~ LEC.TION DAY l I P,b,,11' H-N ... I ~ m., 0)-« 17~CJ P,, W -- Shttl ~ ' ')l 'fll J.dd,rn1- U._ 'ft.J.'(J,Jf )1~ \\ ' ' ' '' - ' ''