HOUSTON — A former Harris County elections worker was charged with six felonies after an investigation revealed his actions allegedly caused disruptions to the 2022 election, according to District Attorney Kim Ogg.
He's also accused of lying about the hours he worked for the county.
According to the DA's office, the suspect's motive was pure greed.
Darryl Blackburn, 35, faces five charges of tampering with evidence and faces up to two years in prison for each charge. He was also charged with theft of a public servant, for which he faces up to 10 years.
Blackburn turned himself in and his bond was set at $65,000, Ogg said.
Michael Levine, chief assistant district attorney of public corruption, answered questions alongside Ogg on Tuesday.
After receiving complaints about the election, Ogg said an investigation was launched to find out what went wrong. She said Harris County brought in the Texas Rangers to conduct the investigation.
The Texas Rangers reportedly found out that Blackburn had lied about his employment status. The investigation revealed that Blackburn held full-time jobs with Harris County as well as a full-time job in The Woodlands for 15 months. Investigators said he billed for the same hours on the same days while working in person in The Woodlands and also while claiming to be working remotely for the county.
"This is 15 months of sustained double-dipping on timesheets. He worked exclusively from home for Harris County, yet frequently worked in person at his other higher paying job in The Woodlands," Levine said.
The oil and gas job in The Woodlands earned him $250,000 a year and was not an approved second job by the county. The elections job paid him $90,000 that same year, according to investigators.
For the 2022 election, Blackburn was in charge of allocating paper ballots to voting sites in Harris County. A shortage of paper ballots at some voting sites caused some voters to not be able to cast a ballot, Ogg said.
Investigators said he allocated the same amount of paper ballots to 98% of all 700 or so polling places despite wildly different historical voter turnouts.
Prosecutors said that on Election Day in 2022, between his two jobs, Blackburn claimed he worked 26 hours. One of his charges stems from a time when Blackburn took paternity leave through the county job and said he wouldn't work even though he was allegedly at his second job. He allegedly collected $21,000 while on leave.
KHOU 11 Investigates discovered that 119 Harris County polling locations didn't initially receive enough ballot paper on Election Day.
"We know this was a failure," Ogg said. "Mr. Blackburn not only stole thousands of dollars from Harris County in the sense that he lied on timesheets, but much more importantly, he stole individuals' rights to vote a basic constitutional right in our democracy because people on both sides were delayed in their voting, halted in their voting, rerouted in their voting."
Investigators said that while Blackburn's miscalculations caused disruptions, there was no evidence that the actions were intentionally meant to suppress voter turnout and there was no attempt to sway the election in favor of one party or the other.
"I do want to say that the investigation found no evidence of intent to impact the outcome of the election for either party," Ogg said.
Word of charges comes nearly a year after the Texas Secretary of State’s office released a report late last year detailing issues with the Nov. 2022 elections, including equipment and supply issues, insufficient training of election workers, incomplete paperwork and data issues.
Election changes in Harris County
In the wake of the 2022 March primary election in Harris County, former Elections Administrator Isabel Longoria resigned. Former Harris County Elections Administrator Clifford Tatum was then appointed before the county eliminated the Elections Administration Office and turned to elected officials to run elections.
For nearly three years, an appointed elections administrator ran elections in the state's largest county until state legislation changed the way elections were run.
Harris County election duties are now in the hands of the county clerk and tax assessor-collector. The transition was made when the new law went into effect.
There was a bit of turnover after the transition of power eliminated the elections administrator position and put election duties back under the county tax assessor-collector, who handles voter registration, and the county clerk, who handles election administration.