Tarrant County leaders to create unit to investigate instances of election fraud
Tarrant County is getting an election fraud investigation unit.
County judge Tim O’Hare, Sheriff Bill Waybourn and District Attorney Phil Sorrells will hold a press conference 2 p.m. Wednesday at the Sherif’s Office Administration building to discuss its creation.
O’Hare has long discussed the possibility of creating an election integrity officer position that would look into election practices and instances of voter fraud, though audits of Tarrant County’s elections have come back clean.
The person in that position, if approved by the Tarrant County commissioners court, would report to O’Hare, Waybourn and another commissioner. The position has yet to be discussed by commissioners.
The timeline for the unit’s formation will be discussed during tomorrow’s press conference, a representative for the sheriff’s department wrote in an email to the Star-Telegram.
Efforts to increase public confidence in Tarrant County’s election have been ongoing since 2020. Before the midterms this past year, elections administration Heider Garcia invited members of the public out to the elections office to participate in a mock election to test voting machines.
Tarrant County was one of four Texas counties to participate in an election audit ordered by former president Donald Trump.
Sorrells told the Star-Telegram Tuesday afternoon that the county receives lots of complaints about election fraud and its top officials want to make sure elections are fraud free. Elected officials can’t be trusted if you can’t trust the elections, he said.
A representative for O’Hare couldn’t immediately be reached for comment.
This story was originally published February 7, 2023 at 4:05 PM with the headline "Tarrant County leaders to create unit to investigate instances of election fraud."
