Commissioners Reshuffle the Duties of Discontinued Elections Administrator's Office

Harris County Commissioners dissolved the election administrator’s office to abide by a new law days away from going into effect that places election operations here back in the hands of county officials.

To reorganize, commissioners voted unanimously to transfer 131 positions to Harris County Clerk Teneshia Hudspeth’s Office and another 39 positions to Harris County Tax Assessor-Collector Ann Harris Bennett’s Office during Tuesday’s Commissioners Court meeting.

According to reports, despite keeping staff from the election administrator’s office, neither hired ousted Harris County Elections Administrator Clifford Tatum.

Hudspeth will oversee election management, while Bennett will handle voter registration. They will officially take over operations on Friday – less than two months away from the start of early voting.

Hudspeth attended the meeting, but Bennett did not – instead, Wendy Caesar, chief deputy at the Tax Assessor-Collector’s Office, attended on her behalf.

Hudspeth said the county officials were working closely with others and put a plan in place to avoid disruption or delays in the ongoing work of running the upcoming November election.

“While we can all agree that this is not an ideal situation, I am committed to doing the job before me,” she said.

This comes after a failed attempt by the county to block Senate Bill 1750 – which abolishes the Harris County elections administrator position – from going into effect on September 1.

Harris County Attorney Christian Menefee challenged the new law, arguing that it was unconstitutional because it called to disband only the elections administrator’s office in Harris County – and not over half of the other Texas counties that also run elections this way.

Although the county got a temporary injunction, blocking the law from going into effect, the state successfully appealed this decision to the Texas Supreme Court– allowing Senate Bill 1750 to stand.

However, the matter isn’t finally settled since the Texas Supreme Court will hear Menefee’s challengei n November.