Alexander Desormeaux, Harris Fellow, Office of County Administration
August 1, 2022

A prominent issue within Harris County is election administration, specifically the hiring of a new elections administrator and the issues that occurred with the previous elections administrator.

The new elections administrator, Clifford Tatum, cannot start until August. Before he can assume the position, he must establish residency in Harris County and register to vote. The problem is that the next election including races for governor and other statewide positions plus congressional seats and local officials are on the ballot on November 8th. This gives the new elections administrator less than three months to adjust to their position AND get prepared for the upcoming election in a county with more than 2.5 million voters. That’s an extremely short amount of time for someone to take a new position and properly execute their job duties on such an important and grand scale.

There have already been issues with time constraints in the past and this is no different. Now I bet you’re wondering “Why do we need to hire a new elections administrator?” Well, we need to hire a new elections administrator because the previous elections administrator, Isabel Longoria, resigned after ten thousand mail ballots were not entered in the election night count for the March primaries. This happened due to many missteps that occurred along the way, as well as new state laws reforming elections. Reportedly many polling places were understaffed and had long wait times to vote, which subsequently led to tremendous delays in the election count.

There are some possible solutions to make this transition smoother. First, be open and transparent about what happened during the May and March elections. A thorough report of the issues that happened should be drafted and given to Mr. Tatum. With such a report, he can more easily and quickly see what worked in the previous elections and, more importantly, what didn’t work. Mr. Tatum can then avoid the pitfalls that have previously caused difficulties by identifying possible solutions to help improve the process. One way of getting this report done in a timely and accurate manner would be having to have former elections administrator Isabel Longoria take the lead on drafting this report. This would allow the report to contain firsthand experiences of the election process, giving it more validity and impact. Additionally, interviews with voters and poll workers would add other perspectives. If knowledge is power, an extensive report from multiple voices will help to effectively prep Mr. Tatum for the rough job he has ahead of him.

What can residents of Harris County do to help the election process this November? Simply volunteering to work at your local polling location could make a remarkable difference, particularly since understaffing was a major issue in the previous elections. Many of the workers there had to stay overtime due to the limited number of staff available.

The content and opinions expressed on this webpage are solely the writer’s own and do not reflect the views of nor are they endorsed by the University of Houston or the Hobby School of Public Affairs.