Tex. Election Code § 87.042
This is the official text of Tex. Election Code § 87.042, part of Texas’s Election Code — governs how elections are conducted.
Not legal advice. This page reproduces the official text of a government statute for reference only. Laws change, and how a statute applies depends on your specific facts. For advice about your situation, consult a licensed attorney in your state.
§ 87.042. DISPOSITION OF ACCEPTED BALLOT.
Official statutory text
(a) The early voting ballot board shall open each carrier envelope containing an accepted ballot without defacing the certificate on the carrier envelope and remove the ballot envelope from the carrier envelope.
(b) Except as provided by Subsection (c), the board shall place the ballot envelope containing an accepted ballot in the ballot box containing the early voting ballots voted by personal appearance.
(c) The ballot envelope must be placed in a separate container if:
(1) the ballots are to be counted at a central counting station; or
(2) the procedure for counting the early voting votes cast by personal appearance is different from that for counting the votes cast by mail.
(d) An accepted ballot that was not returned in the official ballot envelope shall be treated as an accepted ballot that was returned in the ballot envelope.
(b) Except as provided by Subsection (c), the board shall place the ballot envelope containing an accepted ballot in the ballot box containing the early voting ballots voted by personal appearance.
(c) The ballot envelope must be placed in a separate container if:
(1) the ballots are to be counted at a central counting station; or
(2) the procedure for counting the early voting votes cast by personal appearance is different from that for counting the votes cast by mail.
(d) An accepted ballot that was not returned in the official ballot envelope shall be treated as an accepted ballot that was returned in the ballot envelope.
Status: in_force · Read it on the official government site
Need a lawyer in Texas?
Find a Texas lawyer
About this page: Statute text is reproduced from official government publishers via the
Open US Law dataset
(Vaquill AI, snapshot v2026.08, CC BY 4.0). Primary legislative text like this is public domain under the government-edicts doctrine
(Georgia v. Public.Resource.Org, 2020). We link every section back to its official source so you can verify it independently.