Votebeat: Harris County’s elections were flawed, but new officials made improvements, state says

Natalia Contreras of Votebeat reports on Harris County elections and the improvements officials have made.

The Secretary of State’s Office will again assign state inspectors to observe the handling and counting of ballots and monitor election records in Harris County, it said while releasing a new audit outlining problems with the county’s elections in 2021 and 2022.

The state audit, released late Friday, found that in those years, Harris County election officials did not follow state-mandated rules related to voter registration list maintenance; failed to adequately train election workers, which led to problems at the polls; and violated the law when it failed to estimate and issue the required ballot paper at some polling locations.

Harris County failed to adequately train election workers on how to properly set up and operate the voting system, the audit found, which “may have impacted the high percentage of equipment malfunctions” in the November 2021 constitutional amendment election. The county then did not adequately address these training issues prior to the March 2022 primary, the state said.

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