FORT WORTH -- The Tarrant County Elections Office was once the place to be when votes were counted.
Before results were posted immediately on the Internet and back when the office was in the basement of the historic courthouse, throngs of political observers, operatives and campaign representatives would cram in boisterously to get the latest tallies.To put it mildly, that day has passed.On Tuesday night, fewer than a dozen people were scattered in chairs at the elections office off Sylvania Avenue. Two large screens at the head of the room showed not detailed images of election results but NBC's America's Got Talent.Election results scrolled on the bottom of the screen, except during commercials.The elections office these days is only for a few remaining "die-hards," as several people there Tuesday referred to themselves."Some of us just can't break the habit and keep coming," said John Holcomb, who said he was affiliated with the Jonathan Stickland and Stephanie Klick campaigns.Tarrant County Administrator G.K. Maenius said the size of the crowd has dropped steadily as the county improved the way it releases results on the Internet. It is in sharp contrast to the once crowded hallways of the Tarrant County Courthouse, where the elections office was housed until 2005-06."We were downtown and lot closer to the watering holes," joked Steve Raborn, Tarrant County elections administrator.In those days, the votes were all counted at the elections office, Maenius said. Today, the county has nine relay stations where votes are tabulated and sent to the elections office electronically.Holcomb recalled that several years ago, vote results were displayed by an overhead projector before distribution in paper handouts. People at the elections office would hurriedly pass the latest results on to campaign officials on their cellphones."These days, people are getting the results on their iPhones," Holcomb said. "It's all completely different."Some things don't change. Small issues arose during Tuesday's elections, like a few election judges not getting polls open on time or complaints about aggressive campaign representatives at the polling places, Raborn said. But no big or unusual problems were reported.The fact that local elections were held two weeks ago may have helped because poll workers were familiar with the tasks, he said.As vote totals slowly rose Tuesday night, the gathering at the elections office remained sparse. Ann Diamond, chief of the specialized services division of the Tarrant County district attorney's office, who has been at the elections office on election night for years, spoke with a whiff of nostalgia about "the old days.""You know, it was a lot of fun," she said. "The camaraderie we all had there was sort of special. They were good days."Alex Branch, 817-390-7689Twitter: @albranch1Have more to add? News tip? Tell us
