Tarrant County’s former election administrator will run Dallas County elections
Tarrant County’s former election administrator is headed next door to Dallas County to run its elections.
Heider Garcia resigned from his Tarrant County job in April, citing disagreements with County Judge Tim O’Hare over how to run transparent elections. Now, Garcia said he’s accepted the new position in Texas’ second most populous county, which is politically different than Tarrant despite their shared border.
“It’s now the largest election administration office in the state of Texas,” Garcia said in an interview with the Fort Worth Star-Telegram, referring to the recent elimination of the office in Texas’ largest county, Harris, after the passage of a new state law.
It’s a big challenge, he said.
“But that’s what we do, right?” Garcia said. “We work to make elections accessible, transparent, fair. I’m really excited for this new challenge.”
Garcia’s new position in Dallas County was first reported by Votebeat, which said his appointment and a Dec. 20 start date was announced during a Wednesday election commission meeting. He replaces Michael Scarpello, who recently announced his retirement.
Garcia confirmed the report in a Wednesday social media post.
“I’m honored by the decision of Dallas County to offer me the position of Elections Administrator,” Garcia said in a post on X. “I will be very humble in my new role and work hard to follow in Michael’s footsteps, Dallas deserves the best and I intend to work with that goal in mind.”
The county’s human resources director told commission members, including Dallas County Judge Clay Jenkins, there were about 10 candidates who applied but only two who met preferred qualifications. It was preferred that candidates had previously been an election administrator or second in command in a county or city of more than 100,000 people.
After coming back from executive session, during which Jenkins said candidates were interviewed, it was voted 4-1 that Garcia was being hired for the job
The election commission includes Jenkins, Vice Clerk John Warren, County Tax Assessor Collector John Ames, Dallas County Democratic Party Chair Kardal Coleman and Dallas County Republican Party Chair Jennifer Stoddard-Hajdu, who was the sole vote against Garcia’s appointment.
“We had two great preferred candidates, and ultimately chose Heider Garcia who has a proven track record of running excellent elections in several places, most recently Tarrant County,” Jenkins said in a statement. “Elected officials of both parties and former Texas Secretaries of State praise Heider for his thoroughness, fairness, and leadership abilities.”
The U.S. Elections Assistance Commission hired Garcia as a senior subject matter expert after he resigned from his role in Tarrant County.
When Garcia left earlier this year he wrote to O’Hare, a Republican who took over as Tarrant County Judge in January, that 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.
He referenced a meeting with the judge.
“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.”
Garcia declined to elaborate on what happened in the meeting.
“It’s pretty clear I did not like was going on in that meeting, and I chose to say I’m not your guy for this, and that’s it,” he told the Star-Telegram Wednesday.
Garica is looking ahead to the new role. His departure from Tarrant County and reason for resigning is in the past and Dallas is his new focus, he said.
No two counties are the same. Dallas is not Tarrant, so the first step is to get to know the staff, department and its needs, Garcia said.
“The long term vision is to make Dallas the leading, number one county in the state in terms of innovation, in terms of transparency, in terms of, whenever we have an audit to be the number one,” he said. “Always leading. Always doing things spotless clean. That takes a different shapes depending on the support... and just the general approach to things that each county has.”
Election Offices across the country have been navigating unfounded complaints of voter fraud following the 2020 presidential election. Tarrant County was one of four Texas counties where the results of the election were audited, along with Dallas, Collin and Harris Counties. Few issues came back.
During his election, O’Hare campaigned for an election integrity officer. Ultimately the idea didn’t move forward after District Attorney Phil Sorrells and Sheriff Bill Waybourn created an election integrity unit in February.
“As County Judge and Chair of the Tarrant County Election Commission, I want nothing more than quality, transparent elections in Tarrant County,” O’Hare said in an April statement after Garica’s departure. “Supporting the creation of an Election Integrity Task Force was all about quality, transparent elections. Mr. Garcia voluntarily resigned his position, and I wish him well in his future endeavors.”
Garica, who received death threats after the 2020 election, took steps to try and combat misinformation during his tenure in Tarrant County— giving a crash course on elections following concerns about the election process and inviting the public to come test voting machines as part of a mock election.
“Facts, facts, facts, facts and transparency,” Garcia said, asked how you combat voter misinformation, particularly in a large county like Dallas.
The two counties trend differently politically. Tarrant has long been considered a red county, though voters have elected some Democrats at the top of the ballot in recent years, and is led by a Republican, O’Hare, while Dallas is considered a blue county and is led by a Democrat, Jenkins.
Obviously the counties are politically different, but that shouldn’t matter, Garcia said.
“We should do the same job whether its a red or a blue or a purple... commissioners court,” he said.
The voters should always come first, he said.
“The politics should never, in an elections office, go into telling someone to not put the voters ahead of everything else,” Garcia said. “That is the purpose of an elections official, is to put the voters first, and so when that happens, that’s when you break the relationship.”
This story was originally published October 18, 2023 at 3:19 PM.
