A new edition of Local Schedule EL – Records of Elections and Voter Registration – will take effect on September 3, 2014. The revised schedule was published for adoption in the August 22, 2014 issue of the Texas Register. The new schedule supersedes the current second edition.

Local Schedule EL, 3rd edition, incorporates changes to the Election Code made by HB 2817 from the 81st Legislature (see our summary of those change here) as well as other small changes.

We will post the new edition to our Local Retention Schedules page (https://www.tsl.texas.gov/slrm/recordspubs/localretention.html) on September 3rd. We will also post a list of all of the changes to the schedule on that page.

Do the new rules apply to records created before September 3, 2014?

Yes, the new retention periods are retroactive. This means that all of your records, whether they were created before or after September 3, will be subject to the new retention rules.

What do we need to do?

If your government has adopted Local Schedule EL by submitting form SLR 508 (Declaration of Compliance with the Records Scheduling Requirement of the Local Government Records Act) you can begin following the new retention periods immediately. Be sure to notify any affected departments of this rule change.

If your government follows its own Records Control Schedule, you must either amend your schedule with the new retention periods (using forms SLR 540 and SLR 520) or adopt Local Schedule EL by submitting form SLR 508.

To download any of the above forms, go to https://www.tsl.texas.gov/slrm/recordspubs/forms/local.html.

What about TSLAC’s other retention schedules?

Local Schedule EL is the first of TSLAC’s twelve local schedules to be updated. We are currently in the process of updating all of the other retention schedules, so please stay up-to-date on future changes (and give feedback on proposed updates) by subscribing to The Texas Record.