Certification of Houston City Council vote delayed amid contested results

In what should have been a quick and easy certification and swearing-in of newly-elected council members in the city of Houston, the results have instead been contested.

Three council members— Kent Mitchell, Carter Cole, and Laurie Faubert — were scheduled to take their seats Monday evening, but candidate Callie Courtney has contested the results, citing ballot tally inconsistencies, and a motion was made to postpone the certification pending investigation and a probable recount. Courtney had waged a major write-in campaign for a spot on the city council.

“I am the one contesting the results for Seat G, for many reasons,” Courtney said during public comments at the meeting. “Errors on the unofficial Canvass board document posted online and included in the meeting agenda packet…if you look at that closely, there are poll numbers missing, there is a signature missing, and the numbers don’t look like the same person wrote it.”

The Canvass Board, which met in Houston on October 4 at Houston City Hall, certified and signed the results, including in-person poll voting, early, and absentee votes. In the race for Seat G, Laurie Faubert, who has only been in office since July, 2024, also emerged as the winner by a slim margin over write-in candidate Callie Courtney. Faubert received 133 votes, just two more votes the Courtney, who received 131 votes.

Courtney said there appeared to be a lack of transparency with the number of ballots called into question. “Where is the record of the improper or damaged ballots, and why were they declared damaged? Is there a record of those?”

According to Houston Code 3.37.010, ten registered city voters or one candidate may file to contest the results of an election based on malconduct, fraud or corruption on the part of an election official sufficient to change the result of the election; the person elected is not qualified by law; or there is existence of a corrupt election practice as defined by the laws of the state sufficient to change the result of the election.

Deputy Mayor David Childs served as the acting Mayor while current Mayor Carter Cole was absent said that the contesting and delay of certification is all part of the process and transparency.

“This is part of the process, and we’re following that. I know that what we’re doing tonight, postponing this, is the proper thing for us to do, to allow for that transparency and that investigation to take place.”

This was not the only change to come from the Canvass Board. When checked last week, the unofficial results for city council had, candidate Wayne Oliver with the narrowest of margins over incumbent Carter Cole, with Oliver maintaining a one-vote lead. However, when the Canvass board met on Friday, the votes tallied, which included early and absentee ballots, Cole had emerged as the winner, receiving 154 votes. Oliver received 116 votes. There were three write-in votes.

The only Council seat vote that remained was that of incumbent Kent Mitchell, who also faced a write-in campaign from Joseph Stanistreet. Mitchell received 179 votes while there were 73 write-in votes.

According to the Canvass Board Certificate of Election, there were 88 early votes received and four absentee mail-in ballots cast in the 2024 election. There were several votes called into question and ultimately six votes were not counted. However, there is nothing indicating the total poll ballots as that line was not filled in,

“You can see why there is so much confusion because the numbers don’t really jibe,” said Courtney. “As far as the whole entire election, there’s some questions that should be answered before the other seats are certified tonight.”

When the Canvass Board results were posted on October 4, there were immediate on-line comments calling into question the solicitation for early ballots and speculation that voters were recruited, possibly from outside Houston. However, all voters are checked against current resident rolls along with current, valid identification to ensure there are no outside voters interfere with the voting process.

“The total number of ballots was actually left blank, and it would lead us to think that there were only 91 counted ballots, so that is definitely a concern of mine,” said Council member Sandy MacDonald during Council comments. “The Canvass Board members should have filled that out before they signed it.”

Council member Jeff Brasel commented that he thought there would have been a lot less confusion if more members of the public had shown up to watch the Canvass Board do its work.

“I spent about 4 ½ hours in this chamber with less than half a dozen other people that were not on the Canvass Board, watching this election be counted, watching them through every step of the process.” He said there was a third-party person present to observe that the process moved forward. “I think we have a lot of Monday quarterbacking going on.”

Meanwhile, Council member Kent Mitchell voiced disappointment in the conduct of some community members and character attacks in the run-up to the election. “We’re better than that.”

Also according to the Houston Code, the Clerk and City Attorney shall investigate the grounds of the contest and submit a report of findings to the Council. The Clerk may request that the Canvass Board or additional personnel assist with the investigation as necessary. The Council shall defer the certification of the contested election results pending receipt of the report, but shall proceed with certification of all election results that are not contested.

If there is a determination by the council that the grounds of the contest are valid and, if true, would change the results of the election, the Council shall proceed in a manner that is “consistent with its determination.” If the Council finds that there is no merit for the contestation that would change the outcome of the election results, the Council can then move forward to declare the election valid and certify the contested election results.

If the Clerk determines that an application for recount is substantially in the required form, the Clerk shall schedule the recount to be held within seven calendar days after receipt of the application.

No further information was made available during the Special City Council meeting. The next Houston City Council meeting is scheduled for Thursday, October 10 at Houston City Hall.