HARRIS COUNTY, Texas — Just a day after Gov. Greg Abbott called for an investigation into Harris County elections citing widespread problems, Harris County Election Administrator Clifford Tatum gave a preliminary report of what happened on Election Day.
Republicans claim GOP polling places were targets for voter suppression due to election day issues, but administrators said there was nothing nefarious and a full review will come soon.
Emotions are still running high a week after election day with Republican activists and voters protesting outside of Harris County Commissioners Court with some who made their thoughts heard in court.
RELATED: Gov. Greg Abbott calls for investigation into Harris County elections after 'widespread problems'
“This was no accident and now the state of Texas is going to find out exactly what you did,” one public speaker said.
Abbott called for an investigation into Harris County elections that saw many Democratic victories last Tuesday.
“I think we need to do an audit of the election and I’m calling for that -- not for political reasons -- but for obvious reasons ... we have a problem in Harris County,” Republican Commissioner Tom Ramsey said.
Republicans said confusion and delays, including insufficient paper ballots in Republican precincts and staffing problems in Republican districts, are questionable.
“There are concerns that there seems to be a pattern of where the polls that ran out of paper were the more Republican areas of the county,” Ramsey said.
Tatum said system replacements and operations should be revamped as well as the communication systems.
“As with every election, start-up is more of a challenge, but in all, I think the Election Day workers did a very good job there are a few issues that have been identified, I will brief you on some of those today but a full assessment is in order we have started that assessment but I’d like to remind you and the public we’re still counting votes,” Tatum said.
He also is pushing to improve communication systems.
“Communications between the judge, presiding judge, our call centers has to be improved there is no real visibility within the call from the judge to the response from the technician to the completion of whatever the issue was that occurred on Election Day,” Tatum said.
Tatum, who is limited in what he can openly discuss because of a pending lawsuit and investigations, said he will present a full report to the county commissioners and added he needs sustained investments in the election office.
“Resources to adequately cover 782 locations throughout a 1,700-square-mile county with temporary tectonically support requires tools to properly manage those individuals,” he said.
Harris County Judge Lina Hidalgo, who was re-elected as a Democrat, called out “extremists” who are embracing election denials and said there will be cooperation.
“Everyone will participate in these investigations to the extent required despite there being no evidence -- and correct me if I’m wrong Mr. Tatum -- of widespread fraud,” Hidalgo said.
Tatum refused to answer questions from the media as he left commissioners court.
There are about 2,000 more ballots left to be counted and those are provisional ballots.
They are expected to be tallied and completed by Wednesday at the close of business -- Thursday at the latest.