Report: Astros World Series parade one of several reasons for Harris Co. Election Day issues
HARRIS COUNTY, Texas - A new report released by the Harris County Elections Administrations Office is revealing some new details regarding the numerous problems that were reported on Election Day.
One of those issues is blaming the Astros World Series Parade, which occurred the day before Election Day.
The report says: "As part of the Election Day set up process for Election Day delivery, the EAO delivers voting equipment and materials to each VC (Voting Center) the week and weekend before Election Day. The November 8, Monday setup for Election Day voting did not proceed according to plan for 170 VCs because of the celebratory World Series Parade. Several ISD’s gave their staff the Monday off to participate in the parade. As a result, the PJs (Presiding Judges) at those locations had to reschedule set up for Monday evening/night as opposed to Monday morning and for some locations set up occurred on Tuesday morning. This resulted in reports from several election judges that they were delayed in opening at 7:00am due to limited time to setup on Election Day."
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As a result, following a lawsuit, voting was extended an additional hour at all polling locations in Harris County.
Other issues included:
- Voting centers not opening on time due to several reasons including the Primary Judge's Captains Box not delivered which contained the keys to the voting equipment, causing a two hour delay.
- Presiding Judge closing the election on the controller before voting began (1-hour delay)
- Election workers quitting or not showing up for work.
- Presiding Judges not being able to access the facility at 6 a.m. (30-minute delay)
Another big issue that was reported on Election Day was the ballot paper supply.
According to the reported, 46 voting centers called requesting additional paper on Election Day. However, according to the report, 'this does not indicate that these VC's ran out of paper and had turn voters away as a result - only that they required additional paper at some point on Election Day."
You can read the full report by clicking here or viewing below.
In a statement received by FOX 26, Harris County Commissioner Adrian Garcia, said:
"What this thorough report reflects is while the election was not perfect, it was fair and free of any malfeasance or interference. No operation for an election with over one million voters can be perfect - however, that doesn’t stop us from making perfection the goal. None of the errors changed the results of any race. If anything, these types of issues bubble up in counties all across the state of Texas and can be blamed on the state’s lack of clarity. In some cases, the challenges are directly due to state leadership’s confusing or misguided attempts at fixing a problem that doesn’t exist."
"The elections office has identified 18 realistic steps to take to address the issues that arose. The steps include improving election worker training and a new evaluation system for election workers to ensure better quality, which will address some of the most grievous concerns that we saw in Precinct 2. I will actively be monitoring the progress of these improvements and pressing the EAO to implement these steps and I will be laser focused to support the office so that the process can be improved, assuming state leadership stays out of our way."