Harris County officials say they’re prepared to minimize potential issues during this year’s election season after a state audit found several administrative failures during the county’s general election last year.
During a recent press conference, Harris County Clerk Teneshia Hudspeth said her department has been working closely with the Texas Secretary of State’s Office to minimize the risk of any problems.
According to Hudspeth, the county’s 68 early voting centers and 701 Election Day voting centers will be fully staffed with tech support in case of emergencies. Additionally, Hudspeth said they’ve bolstered the number of training sessions for poll workers from 70 to more than 120 sessions.
“There is no such thing as a flawless election,” Hudspeth said. “If there are things that come up, which they will…we will be able to mitigate them and address them in real time.”
This comes after the Texas Secretary of State’s office published a preliminary report on Thursday analyzing multiple failures during Harris County’s 2022 general election. The report maintained that the county failed to provide enough paper ballots at several voting centers and found “widespread equipment failures” and inconsistencies in the number of registered voters reported to the state.
The report recommended Harris County officials “conduct a comprehensive review of their training program” and “routinely conduct post-election audits” in an effort to “measure the effectiveness of the county training program related to the administration of elections.”
Early voting begins Monday and runs through Nov. 3. Election Day is Nov. 7.
Houston Public Media contributed to this report.