Under the watchful eyes of GOP critics due to the issues experienced during last November’s election – operations this time around ran relatively smoothly, with only a few problems arising at a handful of Election Day vote centers.
“I think on a curve, the election was a success, especially considering that the bar was really high for what would constitute a success,” Brandon Rottinghaus, University of Houston political science professor, said.
According to Rottinghaus, the way Harris County officials managed the election, along with it having been a modest Republican election, should have muted some GOP criticism and seems to have already had this effect.
He added that the Republicans – such as Senator Paul Bettencourt (R-Houston) – had not addressed any concerns they had regarding Election Day processes.
“The farther from reality that claims about voter fraud are, the harder it is to convince most people that there’s a real issue,” Rottinghaus said. “Republicans can convince themselves there’s a problem, but that doesn’t mean they’re going to convince more people beyond that.”
Bettencourt and GOP candidates led the significant backlash after the November 2022 election in response to more than 20 polling locations running out of ballot paper and other vote centers opening late – which in turn resulted in extended hours at some poll.
These Republicans who lost their races against Democratic incumbents and challengers filed 22 election contest lawsuits – the first of which has yet to receive a ruling. Several of these candidates, including former GOP challenger for the Harris County Judge position, Alexandra Del Moral Mealer, have since dropped their cases.
During this year’s regular legislative session, Bettencourt authored Senate Bill 1750, legislation that passed into law, abolishing the role of former Harris County Elections Administrator Clifford Tatum.
This was the first election under this new law, which returned election operations to Harris County Clerk Teneshia Hudspeth and voter registration responsibilities to Harris County Tax Assessor-Collector Ann Harris Bennett.
Despite the quick turn-around after SB1750 went into effect on September 1, voters reported small-scale issues at roughly seven of the 701 Election Day polling locations.
This included problems with scanners, malfunctioning vote machines, paper jams and other technology at roughly seven of the 701 Election Day polling locations.
During a press conference held on election night, Hudspeth said the reported issues were problems that occur during any election. She added that election personnel were able to address all the problems that arose throughout the day.
“The main concern was addressing not repeating the concerns of elections before – and we’ve done that,” Hudspeth said.
“The main concern was addressing not repeating the concerns of elections before — and we’ve done that,” Hudspeth said.
She added that there were no ballot shortages at any of the vote centers across the county.
Earlier in the day, according to Hudspeth, about 7 percent of the polling locations opened late. However, these roughly 49 vote centers were open and operating by 10 a.m.
On election night, she said there were no issues with processing the voting materials dropped off by presiding judges from the polling locations assigned to report to the NRG Arena election headquarters – which doubled as one of the six so-called rally sites.
Although Hudspeth wrote on Wednesday that “most election judges promptly returned the equipment and ballots after closing their vote center,” she included that a handful did not follow protocol.
She added that the last drop-offs of these materials occurred between 2 a.m. and 3 a.m. on Wednesday, excluding one polling location whose presiding judge did not return the required equipment and did not answer county election officials’ calls.
According to Hudspeth, a constable eventually retrieved these materials when the location opened Wednesday morning.
“Even if elections are run smoothly for the foreseeable future, there will always be mistakes,” Rottinghaus said. “And those mistakes will be magnified under the guise that there’s some underlying problem.”
“Minimizing those mistakes and trying to remedy past issues is a big factor in moving forward,” he added. “It was a low-stakes election in terms of administration; it was more manageable than you’re going to see in a midterm or presidential election – so it is a good time for mistakes to be made and for them to be corrected.”
Hudspeth said she considered the election a success and added that it unveiled some needs to ensure these larger elections run smoothly.
One of which, she said, was the need for more election workers.
“You will notice that to run elections in Harris County, it takes a lot of people. You are witnessing that tonight,” Hudspeth said. “So I would like to see more election workers recruited to learn the job, to be trained, to be a part of this operation because a year from now, we will be looking at twice the size we are doing tonight.”
Update: Friday, November 10
Senator Paul Bettencourt’s (R-Houston) statement regarding how election operations went since the passage of SB 1750.
“SB 1750 was passed to return Harris County elections to responsive elected officials to avoid election fiascos like those that occurred in 2022.
I have spoken directly with County Clerk Hudspeth after my positive experience in early voting and offered her replacement at the Tax Office any assistance in rebuilding election administration as they restore voter trust in the election process.”
This article appears in Jan 1 – Dec 31, 2023.
