‘There’s nothing to hide.’ For first time ever, Tarrant County conducts mock election
Just after 8:30 a.m. Friday at the Tarrant County elections office, workers buzzed around election machines like bees to a hive.
Lines of white voting machines sat atop gray folding tables as 50 to 60 election workers worked to test them.
The testing process has been happening all week in the name of creating public trust in an era when, to some, it’s nonexistent.
But this time around election officials did something no one in the state had ever done before — they opened their doors to the public to let Tarrant County residents participate in a mock election.
In front of a line of tall blue cabinets sat a series of five voting machines. Three were set up for people to vote by machine like you would at the polls. Two others were set up to scan ballots. A deep, teal basket sat to the right of the machines so those who chose to vote absentee style could deposit their ballot.
It’s an event that you would think comes with pressure as election processes across the county come under fire. False claims of a stolen election still circulate and find their way into election offices and campaigns of politicians everywhere.
Tarrant County held a special county commissioners meeting in April to address election claims and explain the process after residents showed up to commissioners over multiple meetings to hurl questions at the county’s top leaders and request a paper ballot system. One group is even conducting its own audit on Tarrant County’s election systems.
Election administrators everywhere have experienced threats to their lives – including Tarrant County’s own Heider Garcia.
But Garcia, clad in a maroon polo, blue jeans and blue plaid blazer, was as calm and collected as could be. He didn’t know of any other areas conducting the same type of open test, but joked he hoped he “didn’t open Pandora’s box.”
Troy Havard, the county’s assistant elections administrator, said there wasn’t any more pressure for the event than there usually is. Granted he spent 28 years as a Marine.
He compared it to movies: They always have critics.
“We’re used to it,” Harvard said. “We’re ready for it. And, again, there’s nothing to hide.”
The Friday event didn’t attract much of a crowd. County elections officials planned for 300 people — 150 absentee ballots and 150 ballots to vote using the machines sat at Havard’s table.
One 40-year election judge veteran, Gwen Johnson, showed up to participate because she said she wanted to create a kind of future she wants for her 18-year-old granddaughter.
Others were there for debunking purposes. Tristan Martinez does communications for the Tarrant County Democrats, and marched through the double doors Friday morning with her 14-month-old daughter in a baby carrier to film a TikTok to show viewers what to expect when people come to vote.
To Martinez, needing to conduct a test like this to prove something that’s already been proven again and again seemed like a waste of resources.
“I think that even after this election, even if we show all of this going on, there will still be questions, there will still be demands for recounts, and putting a strain further on our resources unnecessarily,” she said.
But if a test like this wasn’t done, what could be done to garner public trust? Martinez thinks it comes down to this — consistency and messaging from top leaders that shows election confidence.
At the end of the day, the test was all about building trust where it has waned.
“Shouting at people is not going to get the answer that we want, you know, that our nation needs,” Martinez said. “We have to build together and that means meeting people where they are.”
This story was originally published September 23, 2022 at 12:12 PM.
