HOUSTON (AP) — The election administrator in Texas’ most populous county submitted her resignation Tuesday following problems with last week's primary, including about 10,000 mail ballots that weren't counted the day of the election, issues with voting machines and a lack of poll workers.
Harris County Elections Administrator Isabel Longoria announced during a meeting of county commissioners she would resign on July 1.
Longoria said she took responsibility for the problems during last Tuesday's election in Harris County, where Houston is located.
“Ultimately, the buck stops with me. I didn’t meet my own standards,” she said.
The announcement of her planned resignation came after a public comment portion of the meeting in which officials and some residents had asked that she either resign or be fired.
Some election judges and workers who spoke during the meeting told commissioners that they dealt with a variety of problems during the election, including long lines because voting machines weren’t working and long waits to get help from technical support. ’
Late Saturday, election officials in Harris County said that an “oversight” led to 10,000 ballots not being counted. Those votes — 6,000 Democratic and 4,000 Republican — would be added to the final tallies on Tuesday. Longoria was also criticized for a slow count that took 30 hours to complete.
The March 1 primary was the first statewide election that took place in Texas under new, tighter voting laws. Thousands of mail ballots were rejected statewide for not having the new, required identification.
___
Follow Juan A. Lozano on Twitter: https://twitter.com/juanlozano70
Juan A. Lozano, The Associated Press
