Tarrant County election security measures could slow election night results
TARRANT COUNTY, Texas - Tarrant County's top Republican announced several security measures for election night, some of which might slow down the vote count.
The list of actions released by County Judge Tim O'Hare account for what the conservative county judge calls a matter of security and transparency.
The detailed bullet points include actions taken during O'Hare's time in office and, according to him, they constitute election security enhancements.
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"The purpose of this is to placate election integrity activists, and to uphold the integrity of county elections. A lot of it is window dressing," said Bud Kennedy, opinion columnist for the Fort Worth Star-Telegram.
O'Hare's statement does not come as a surprise to some political analysts.
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Kennedy believes O'Hare is under pressure from activists who perceive vulnerabilities in election administration, despite no evidence of widespread fraud or tampering.
The judge's actions begin with the county implementing pre-printed, sequentially numbered ballots for in-person voting, a livestream camera places in the ballot board storage room and more.
One of the most impactful items on the list is that election night results will be transmitted in-person rather than via the Internet.
"We’re all worried the counting is going to take several days and that it would get meaner and more bitter as the count is slowed down," said Kennedy. "What Tim O’Hare has done here is to put out a list of changes that, some of them may not amount to a hill of beans, but they all are what the elections activists really want. They don’t really amount too much to the general people, meaning results are a little slower and it may be a little more expensive to do this. It cost the public money without really having any impact."
The final action on O'Hare's list is the formation of the county's election integrity task force for reporting and investigating voter fraud.
It has been strongly criticized and called unnecessary.
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"There is nobody in prison anywhere in Texas for illegal voting. If illegal voting were rampant there might be somebody somewhere in prison for it," said Kennedy. "The fact is there aren’t illegal voting cases, there aren’t people in prison and the people they’ve investigated didn’t amount anything."
Tarrant County Election Changes
According to Tarrant County Judge Tim O'Hare, the county made the following changes ahead of the 2024 election.
- All in-person voting will utilize pre-printed, serialized, sequentially numbered ballots.
- Rally site procedures now ensure ballot bags will be properly sealed by Election Judges.
- Election night results will be transmitted in-person rather than via internet.
- Implemented public search and viewing capability for ballot images.
- Enhanced and improved chain of custody for ballot bags, Election Judge paperwork, ballot storage box keys, and provisional ballots.
- Improved Election Judge paperwork for greater clarity and transparency.
- Enhanced training for Election Judges and Clerks, ensuring statutory compliance and increased ballot security.
- Ballots will be stored by polling location in dedicated boxes.
- E-Pollbooks have been updated to require stricter access controls.
- A live-stream camera has been placed in the Ballot Board storage room.
- Implemented an updated, more secure Voter Registration system.
- Conducted a physical security assessment of the Election Offices.
- Performed a cybersecurity assessment of the Election Offices.
- Updated multiple security protocols to ensure best practices and safeguard against election systems compromise.
- Other security measures that were implemented after a comprehensive third-party analysis.
- Formed an Election Integrity Task Force to investigate any potential election-related crimes, with a dedicated hotline for reporting.