A North Texas elections official who was lauded by top state officials — and his critics — as one of the best administrators in the field has submitted his resignation.
Heider Garcia, who has been the elections director in Tarrant County since 2018, told county officials his last day on the job will be June 23, after the county’s May 6 general election, according to his letter of resignation obtained by Votebeat.
The resignation comes months after a newly elected county judge, the county’s top executive, took office. Tim O’Hare ran on a campaign that prioritized election integrity and frugal spending of tax dollars. Soon after he took office he debuted a county election integrity task force, despite the lack of evidence of widespread voter fraud.
While campaigning more than a year ago, O’Hare went on various conservative radio shows to speak about his priorities. He said “mail ballot harvesting” and “Democrats cheating” contributed to former President Donald Trump losing the 2020 election in Tarrant County.
Garcia, in his resignation letter to county leaders, wrote, “When leadership respects the team’s values and shows trust, members of the team become the best version of themselves. … Judge O’Hare, my formula to ‘administer a quality transparent election’ stands on respect and zero politics; compromising on these values is not an option for me. You made it clear in our last meeting that your formula is different, thus, my decision is to leave.”