Some Texas polls closed during gov primary over staff shortage, others operated by opposing party

During the Texas gubernatorial primary election on Tuesday, multiple polling locations were unable to open or opened late because of staff shortages, while others were operated by the opposing party.

The political parties operate their own primaries in Texas, and according to state law, each polling site must have both Republican and Democratic Party election judges, who are appointed by their respective parties to oversee the sites. But some polling locations were missing either a Republican or Democratic Party election judge, causing them to shut down completely, open late, or have workers from the opposing party operate the voting machines.

Harris County Elections spokeswoman Nadia Hakim told the Houston Chronicle that as of the night before the election, of the 375 polling locations in the county, Republicans were short 20 judges and Democrats needed 12. However, no polling sites in the county were closed on Tuesday, according to The Texas Tribune.Polling sites in Dallas, Tarrant and Hidalgo counties were also lacking either Republican or Democratic election judges.

In Dallas, ten polling locations were shut down completely because of staffing shortages.

Texas enacted a new voting law last year that tightened up elections, which included new voting machines in some counties and penalties for breaking the law. Some, like Harris County Director of Voting Beth Stevens, are now blaming those penalties for the shortage of election judges and clerks.

"The Texas Election Code has been some of the strictest in the country — and that was pre-SB1," Stevens told local ABC affiliate KTRK. "SB1 has tightened that down even more. Quite frankly, we've seen election officials — so people who have been judges before, been clerks before — decline to do that anymore because of their fear of repercussions related to tightening of the voting laws."

Harris County GOP spokeswoman Genevieve Carter told Just the News on Friday that she didn't believe the new voting law was to blame, but rather that "the unelected, unaccountable Elections Administrator is entirely responsible for the poor management of the elections in Harris County."

According to Dallas County Democratic Party Communications Director Kathleen Thompson, some election judges informed her of their concern over the penalties and restrictions enacted by the new law, the Tribune reported.

She also noted that Democrats filled Republican vacancies at 25 polling sites.

Tarrant County Elections Administrator Heider Garcia told the Tribune that polling staff recruitment was difficult this year.

"I honestly can't tell you why people are not motivated," Garcia said. "Was it pay? Was it lack of interest? Was it stress over possible penalties? I mean, I don't know. We need to reach out to the people who said no."

He added that more than a dozen Tarrant County polling locations were closed for two hours on the morning of Election Day because they were missing election judges from one of the parties. About 10 or 11 polling sites were missing Democratic election judges, while two or three were missing Republicans.

Garcia said he used an emergency authorization to allow some staff from the opposing party to operate the other party's voting machines. Republican staff volunteered to help fill eight Democratic vacancies, while one Democrat helped out at a voting station for Republicans, although Garcia believed a Republican later filled that role.

While Garcia noted the concern that some might have with the opposing party operating the other party's voting machines, he said, "Rather than closing and disenfranchising a lot of people, we said let's find a way to staff them."

The polling sites with party vacancies were ones that usually had low turnouts for those parties, Garcia added. At one location, where only about a dozen Democratic voters turned out last year, there was a Democratic election judge vacancy.

The Republican Party of Tarrant County told Just the News on Thursday that no polls in the county were closed on Tuesday.

Prior to Election Day, the Tarrant County GOP had three vacancies to fill at polling sites. By Tuesday, there was only one vacancy, and it was filled by dividing up a team from another polling site. The only issues regarding vacancies they experienced were when some workers called out sick and other normal, labor issues.

The county GOP added that they had trained their election judges and didn't have any issues as a result of the election law. However, he noted that the Democrats had issues with staffing.

Hidalgo County closed some polling locations due to staffing shortages on Election Day.

Hidalgo County Democratic Party Chair Patrick Eronini told The Monitor that his party experienced election worker vacancies due to the limited time to train them and that some were uncomfortable operating the new voting machines.

"After the training, about 10 of the [election] judges didn't feel comfortable," Eronini said. "They quit. Remember, I have no power to make these people work."

He also noted that a lot of election judges "didn't want to work" on Election Day. Some even refused to be moved to other polling locations from sites that had more than enough workers.

Eronini said that COVID also played a role in the depressed election worker turnout.

"So let's remember also that COVID happened," he added. "Historically, we would man those [polling] locations with retirees. A lot of them died."

The Republican parties of Dallas and Hidalgo counties did not immediately respond to requests for comment as to whether the Texas voting law may have contributed to fewer election workers.