Should countywide voting stay? Tarrant elections administrator, county judge disagree
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Tarrant County elections administrator quits
Heider Garcia cited a meeting with O’Hare during which Garcia said he would not compromise while running elections.
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Tarrant County Election Administrator Heider Garcia recently spoke in support of countywide voting before a panel of lawmakers, a policy on which he and County Judge Tim O’Hare seem to differ.
Garcia, who in a Sunday letter said he’s resigning as election administrator, told the Senate State Affairs Committee in March that he opposes a bill to get rid of countywide voting in Texas. The program allows voters to cast ballots at any polling location, rather than in their specific precinct.
Tarrant County is among 90 counties with countywide voting.
Garcia, speaking on behalf of himself and the Texas Association of Election Administrators, told senators the group believes the policy does a lot of good while causing no harm.
“The way we see it, we already do vote centers for two weeks during early voting,” Garcia said during the March 27 hearing. “We allow voters to go anywhere, so we already have all the technology and all the resources we need to do the program.”
There are no compromises in security or chain of custody of the ballots, added Garcia, the association’s vice president. Rolling back the program could also lead to more expenses for some counties as they try to change course, including potentially purchasing more voting machines after downsizing the number of polling places.
But O’Hare at a recent True Texas Project event said he would be open to eliminating countrywide voting.
He was asked about eliminating countrywide voting and doing a partial manual count of ballots.
“So the answer to those questions, not necessarily specifically, exactly what you said, is: I’m open to anything and everything is on the table,” O’Hare said. “I have not come up with a specific, ‘I will not do this, I will not do that.’”
In responding to the questions about voting and ballot counting, O’Hare noted that he doesn’t comment on personnel matters, which he said he’s also been asked about but said he’s had “multiple conversations with people you’d like me to have conversations with.”
“Some very stern conversations, but I don’t comment on somebody’s future or anything like that,” he said, not naming names.
O’Hare added that he’s looking for “best practices” when it comes to elections.
“Ultimately, the questions you ask, will you do this or will you do that, it takes three votes on a commissioner’s court to do anything,” O’Hare said. “I think you all probably have a very good idea of where I stand on just about every issue. I need two more votes for anything and everything I want to do.”
He moved on from the topic, but circled back after an audience member called out a question about countywide voting.
“Somebody yelled out a question there a second ago, would you go back to getting rid of the countywide voting. I would,” he said, the next sentence inaudible over claps.
O’Hare’s office and Garcia did not immediately return requests for comment on Monday. On Tuesday, O’Hare’s office asked that a request for comment be sent by email, but a response was not immediately returned.
In his resignation letter, Garcia said his “formula to ‘administer a quality transparent election’ stands on respect and zero politics” and that compromising on those values wasn’t an option for him.
“You made it clear in our last meeting that your formula is different, thus, my decision to leave,” Garcia wrote. “I wish you the best; Tarrant County deserves that you find success.”
Status of bill to eliminate countywide voting
The bill Garcia spoke against, Senate Bill 990, passed out of the committee in March. It was brought up for debate in the Senate on Tuesday but was withdrawn — it’s author, Sen. Bob Hall mentioned working on an amendment. It could come back up before the chamber. The bill would also have to pass out of the House and be signed by Gov. Greg Abbott.
An identical bill has been filed in the House by Rep. Tony Tinderholt, an Arlington Republican, but it has not been scheduled for a committee hearing as of Monday evening.
Hall, laying out the bill during the March committee hearing, said some election workers have expressed concerns that countrywide voting increases vulnerabilities in election security,
“It is an unnecessary convenience that sacrifices election security,” Hall, an Edgewood Republican, said.
Texas recently audited the 2020 election in four counties, Tarrant, Dallas, Collin and Harris, all of which have countrywide voting. The audit found that Tarrant County “administers a quality, transparent election.”
Sen. José Menéndez, addressing Garcia during the March meeting, said he’s heard of voters being redirected after their precinct changes, prior to countywide voting — voters who may have a limited amount of time to cast their ballots. The San Antonio Democrat asked if there’s a way to check if multiple votes have been cast by the same person. Garcia said there is.
Hall pressed Garcia about which is more important to an election’s outcome: Security or convenience.
“Security and integrity, absolutely,” Garcia said.
Hall continued, “So when you think about the difference between what you’re able to do with security with countywide voting versus precinct voting, which greatly simplifies the voting process — its simplicity and complexity go hand-in-hand. More complex things are, generally the less secure they are.”
Garcia replied that there’s not necessarily a direct relationship. He re-emphasized that the Texas Association of Election Administrators doesn’t believe the program creates any election vulnerabilities.
“Because otherwise, we would have a huge two week problem with early voting,” Garcia said. “We can do early voting securely. We’re just doing the same thing for one more day.”
Staff Writer Abby Church contributed to this report.
This story was originally published April 17, 2023 at 6:31 PM.
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