Perhaps the theme of this newsletter is “when things change, things also slow down.” It has ever been thus in elections, and it was thus in Harris County this week, as Texas’s largest county faced delays in reporting unofficial vote totals to the state. Why? Well, a lot of reasons. The county recently transformed the way it manages elections, brought on an inexperienced elections administrator, purchased brand new voting machines, and also had to respond to a big shift in state law. That’s a lot.
Harris County Elections Administrator Isabel Longoria is the first person with her title in the county. In 2020, the county Commissioner’s Court created the independent office, moving voter registration duties from the tax assessor’s office (really) and moving election management duties from the county clerk. Texas’s other major counties use a similar system, and Harris County was the outlier using its split system.
But unlike other counties, Harris did not install a seasoned election administrator to the role. Isabel Longoria was previously a voting rights adviser for the county, a role that did not come with specific election management responsibilities. While she has an extensive policy background, those who hold the same job in Dallas, Tarrant, Bexar, and El Paso counties have significantly more experience in managing elections, which are logistical marvels that require a steady hand.
The county began searching for new voting machines well before Longoria took office, and before the office was created. The primary put the relatively new technology to the full test, leading to delays in tabulation across the county as many poll workers and voters figured out how to use the machines and did so for the first time. Human error abounded. Harris County’s ballots are also quite a bit longer than the rest of the state, which leads to natural delays in both casting and counting the ballots. Both pages of the two-page ballot needed to be fed into the scanners, which led in part to paper jams and delays in repair.
All of this on top of existing frustrations from voters and the county government with the new election law. More than 11,000 ballots ballots in the county have been marked for rejection largely because of the state’s new ID requirements, ballots that poll workers are still working to help voters correct.
So, all that to say, when Harris County missed the state’s deadline at 7 p.m. Wednesday for reporting early and Election Day results, it wasn’t entirely a surprise. And we should anticipate consequences in Harris County. The GOP there has wasted no time calling for Longoria’s resignation, pointing out her lack of experience. “Today we’ve seen what happens when you put the wrong person in the job,” County Republican Party Chair Cindy Siegel said at a press conference.
But this isn’t entirely a partisan concern. Democratic county officials, like County Judge Lina Hidalgo, aren’t coming to Longoria’s full defense. “State leadership lost their moral authority on elections the day they bought into the Big Lie and used it as the basis to pass SB1,” Hidalgo said in a statement. “Still, that does not absolve our own elections administrator from being expected to run a smooth and efficient election for our voters. I am eager to get a full accounting from the elections department, including any state, local, and party-level issues.”