Harris Co. election workers were 'too exhausted' to count ballots, administrator says

Severe fatigue was among the reasons thousands of Harris County ballots went uncounted in March 1's Texas primary elections, according to new remarks made by county Elections Administrator Isabel Longoria. Over 10,000 mail-in ballots, approximately 4,000 Republican and 6,000 Democratic, were overlooked in the primaries unofficial election night count.

The "fiasco" ultimately led to Longoria announcing her decision to resign office on July 1. The elections administrator told county commissioners that as workers recorded results on Election Day, she worried about her staff's capacity to work continuously throughout the night. Longoria's office was understaffed due to budget restrictions, she said. After expressing her concerns, Longoria said the county's Republican party told her that neither she nor her staff could take breaks and would need to work through the night to count all the votes.

"As you can see that led to the issue at 1 a.m. with those 10,000 mail ballots that, by the way, were not lost," Longoria said. "They were tabulated. They were always in the room. It was a situation of exhaustion and my staff just trying to compensate and cope with the Texas election code in complying with this 24-hour continuous count rule, which does not take into account the human capacity to stay up that long."

Longoria added that some of her workers fell sick from exhaustion, leading at least one worker having a "near heart attack." Longoria also blamed the oversight issues on new voting machines, which required printing and scanning paper ballots.

Read more: https://www.chron.com/politics/article/Harris-County-missing-ballots-election-Hidalgo-17001587.php

Link to tweet