Texas county elections administrator resigns after voting mishaps, including 10,000 uncounted mail-in ballots

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The elections administrator in Texas’s most populous county has resigned following voting mishaps including 10,000 mail-in ballots not being tallied on election day.

Harris County Elections Administrator Isabel Longoria announced during a meeting of county commissioners she would resign on July 1.

HOUSTON, Nov. 4, 2020 — Young voters show the "I Voted" stickers after voting at a polling station in Plano, Texas  (Xinhua/Dan Tian via Getty Images)
(Photo by Dan Tian/Xinhua via Getty) (Xinhua/Dan Tian via Getty Images)

Longoria said she took responsibility for the problems during last Tuesday’s election in Harris County, where Houston is located.

“Ultimately, the buck stops with me. I didn’t meet my own standards,” she said.

AUSTIN, TX – JULY 13: The U.S. and Texas flags wave outside the Texas Capitol  (Photo by Montinique Monroe/Getty Images)

Late Saturday, election officials in Harris County said that an “oversight” led to 10,000 ballots not being counted. Those votes — 6,000 Democratic and 4,000 Republican — would be added to the final tallies on Tuesday. Longoria was also criticized for a slow count that took 30 hours to complete.

In addition to the uncounted ballots, issues with voting machines and a lack of poll workers were also reported. 

Additionally, paper ballots delivered to voting sites were delivered on paper that was the wrong size which caused candidates to be left off the ballot.

Longoria’s resignation came hours after Harris County Judge Lina Hidalgo called for a change in leadership and a day after the Harris County Republican Party announced the filing of litigation to remove Longoria from her post.  

Longoria was appointed as the county’s first elections administrator at the age of 32 in 2020 by the county commissioner’s court which includes Hidalgo, a progressive Democrat.

Longoria’s July 1 resignation date will come roughly a month after the runoff elections in the primary process are scheduled to take place in Texas in addition to other local races.

“Longoria makes $190,000 a year,” Republican Texas State. Rep. Briscoe Cain told Fox News. “By making her resignation effective on July 1, her incompetence is rewarded at the taxpayers’ expense.”

People of varying ages stand and vote at the voting booths set up against the wall of the school gym.

“If she was so incompetent why are they going to keep her around for the primary and other elections that are coming between now and July?” Briscoe added.

Hidalgo’s office and the office of the elections administrator did not immediately respond to a request for comment from Fox News. 

Associated Press contributed to this report

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