HARRIS COUNTY, Texas — Some Harris County commissioners on Tuesday questioned the lack of details and conclusive findings about ballot paper shortages in a post-election report from the Harris County Elections Administration Office.
The analysis from Election Administrator Clifford Tatum’s office was “largely inconclusive” about the extent of the shortage, citing conflicting accounts from election presiding and alternate judges. The report did not provide any information about county technician activity logs, such as what voting centers were visited and what supplies were delivered on election day.
“Right now, there's more questions and answers in terms of that election,” Precinct 3 Harris County Commissioner Tom Ramsey said.
Harris County Judge Lina Hidalgo echoed the need for more specifics.
“Would I have liked to know exactly what happened? Of course, of course, I would have,” Hidalgo said.
KHOU 11 Investigates did its own analysis using the county’s own records comparing paper ballot allocations for each voting center with the total number of votes cast at those respective locations. We found when the polls opened, 121 voting centers were not given enough paper to cover election day turnout. For instance, Salyards Middle School in Cypress initially received 600 paper ballots, but more than 1,000 total votes were cast at that location.
Tatum told county commissioners he could not answer specific questions about the ballot paper shortage due to a pending lawsuit filed by the Harris County Republican Party. But the elections administrator did take issue with the KHOU report.
“The implications of your article cast the cloud into the community that those locations ran out of paper,” Tatum said outside the commissioners court meeting.
Earlier, Tatum told county commissioners that at some voting locations, his office sent supplemental paper supplies throughout election day. But when pressed by KHOU 11 Investigates, the elections administrator could not provide details on where those supplies were sent or where they weren’t.
- Tatum: “There were over 4 million sheets of paper in the street on election day.”
- KHOU 11: “Do you know how much supplemental paper was delivered on election day?”
- Tatum: “Did you hear what I said? There were over 4 million sheets of paper in the street on election day.”
- KHOU 11: “That doesn't answer the question. The question is real simple. Where did you send the paper?”
- Tatum: “Yes, it does.”