Since an Election Administrator (EA) was appointed in Harris County at the end of 2020, the partisan bickering about the performance of the county’s Election Administration Office has reached levels that I have never witnessed in 30-years of public service via non-profits and government entities. Listening to the nonsensical cheerleading and hissing from both sides of the political spectrum, it is clear a brief review of the responsibilities of an EA is needed to place context to the challenges the county’s election office experienced on Election Day in the 2021 November election and the 2022 Primaries.

The complexities involved in administrating elections are many but there are activities that are essential to achieving success. For example, during a legislative session, the election administrator should be tracking legislation related to voting; and, when a bill passes both houses of the legislature, the EA should go over the language of the final copy with a fine-tooth comb to understand the bill’s impact to every aspect of the voting process and voters. Once a bill becomes law, the EA should be prepared to take prompt proactive measures. This includes adjusting practices, updating forms, brochures, poll worker training manuals, information on the website, and in conjunction with stakeholders, work tirelessly to inform the public to ensure voters and poll workers are not surprised.

Aside from monitoring changes in the law, an election administrator should thoroughly understand the voting equipment that is being utilized in the conduct of elections. When a political jurisdiction changes voting machines, every aspect of the election is impacted. It is vital that the EA know the voting system like the back of their hand to enable identifying modifications that must be made to existing processes. Proper adjustments are fundamental to meeting mandated benchmarks throughout the election cycle and on Election Day and ensuring voters a seamless transition from one voting system to another. If this step is not done methodically, the negative affects will be evident to all.

Election administrators can be advocates of good voting laws. However, administrators should recognize that their main responsibility is to be apolitical professionals who understand the innerworkings of the Election process that enable the implementation of practices that create a voting infrastructure that is beyond reproach. Similarly, whether one likes election laws or not, stakeholders should be cognizant that the job of an EA is to understand the parameters of the law and do all possible to provide voters access to casting a ballot in a fair, efficient, prompt, and lawful manner, despite the obstacles presented by the Legislature.

In short, Election Administrators should anticipate issues and have a plan of action for every possibility that may arise in all phases of the election infrastructure that could potentially cause problems for voters and to the voting process.

Anybody that intimately understands the election process knows something is amiss at the election office in the third largest county in the nation. So, it is crucial for leaders to initiate a serious dialogue that may provide answers to these questions: Are the issues in the Election office due to inexperience, ineptitude, a confluence of circumstances that are beyond the office’s control, or all of the above? More importantly, what can be done to address the problems afflicting the election office before the conduct of the fall midterm general election?

Now is the time to have honest deliberations about what is afflicting the county’s election office and obtain a comprehensive understanding of the duties of an election administrator to ensure the errors that were committed in the initial hiring of the County’s first EA are not repeated. Now is the time to stop pointing fingers and manufacturing narratives to rationalize machinations.

Regrettably, leaders continue to talk past each other. No one is showing signs of conceding political ground while the growing partisan divide continues to deteriorate voters’ confidence in the Harris County election office and cast doubt on the validity of the county’s election results.

As the County moves forward, however the local leadership decides to proceed, the citizenry can only hope that reason will prevail over partisanship.