Tarrant County’s election administrator’s announcement of his impending resignation is reverberating across the county as many try to process what it means for the future of fair elections.
County Elections Administrator Heider Garcia sent a letter of resignation to County Judge Tim O’Hare and County Administrator G.K. Maenius earlier this week, about a week before early voting begins in the May 6 city and school district elections.
Garcia stated that his last day would be June 23, after the elections and any potential runoff.
“It will be my utmost priority to guarantee operation continuity of the department before my departure,” he stated.
Garcia, who has been the county’s top election official since 2018, has earned the respect of Democrats and Republicans for his diligence and impartiality in the role.
But he hinted in his letter that his viewpoint about election integrity differs from O’Hare’s. A strident politico and ultra-conservative who defeated former Fort Worth Mayor Betsy Price in a bruising Republican primary last spring and then won the election against county Democratic Party Chair Deborah Peoples in November.
O’Hare succeeded longtime County Judge Glen Whitley, a Republican known for his commitment to transparent government, including election operations.
“Heider did such a fantastic job under stressful conditions,” Whitley said. “This is a big loss for Tarrant County and I wish it hadn’t happened.”
Whitley said Tarrant County’s 2020 presidential election had been audited by the Secretary of State’s office and other organizations that questioned the security and integrity of the election because former President Donald Trump lost the county to Joe Biden.
“Everyone wanted to believe that Trump couldn’t lose but they couldn’t find the votes to prove otherwise,” Whitley said.
“It was such a clean election that the (former) Secretary of State John Scott said he wished he could clone (Garcia),” Whitley said.
The other Republican candidates on the county’s election ballot won their races.
During Whitley’s tenure, the county employed several elections administrators, including one who lasted only six weeks before being fired.
In 2018, the five members of the Tarrant County Elections Commission, then chaired by Whitley, voted unanimously to hire Garcia as elections administrator. The panel included O’Hare, who at the time was chair of the Tarrant County Republican Party.
“O’Hare voted for him,” said Whitley, who has become a critic of O’Hare.
“Unfortunately, many of us had hoped that (O’Hare) would mellow as county judge but he continues to cater to the partisan extremes of the Republican Party,” Whitley said.
Price, who had been endorsed and supported by Whitley for the county judge post, said “we need fair and secure elections but we need the people running them to be nonpartisan.”
Alisa Simmons, the Democratic county commissioner for Precinct 2, tweeted that “it is unfortunate that a stellar county elections administrator, who has operated an office void of political interests, is forced to resign.”
“This is what you get when you have commissioners court members playing political chess with our elections process,” she stated.
Garcia said in his letter that “my formula to ‘administer a quality transparent election’ stands on respect and zero politics. Compromising on these values is not an option for me.”
“You made it clear in our last meeting that your formula is different, thus my decision to leave,” Garcia stated.
Garcia expressed appreciation to Maenius, who “believed in me and provided me all the tools I needed to do my job.
“I say to you what I said to Judge Glen Whitley when we canvassed the November 2022 election: ‘Thank you for your leadership, and for just letting election officials do their job and stay out of politics.’”
In February, O’Hare, along with Sheriff Bill Waybourn and District Attorney Phil Sorrells, announced the formation of an Election Integrity Task Force to investigate and prosecute anyone committing voter fraud in Tarrant County.
Since the task force would operate with the support of existing resources and personnel, it required “no additional approval from the Commissioners’ Court,” O’Hare said in a statement.
Around the same time the task force was created, Garcia appealed to Commissioners Court to spend $150,000 on a laser paper cutter to help with mail ballot sorting.
The request was rejected and O’Hare has told conservative media that it would have been wasteful spending.
O’Hare stated on Twitter: “As County Judge and Chair of the Tarrant County Election Commission, I want nothing more than quality, transparent elections in Tarrant County. Supporting the creation of an Election Integrity Task Force was all about quality, transparent elections.”
“I will be calling a meeting of the County Election Commission in the coming days to discuss the hiring of a new elections administrator,” O’Hare stated.
Matt Angle, founder and director of the Lone Star Project, a Democrat-supporting PAC, said that O’Hare’s actions were predictable.
“He is doing what he said he would do all along,” said Angle, a native of Fort Worth. “He is setting up a situation to make it harder for people to vote and to frighten and intimidate them into not voting.”
Angle said Republicans were deeply disappointed by Trump’s loss in the county in 2020 and took it as a warning that the county, the third most populous in the state, was becoming more diverse and trending Democratic.
Rick Barnes, chairman of the Tarrant County Republic Party, tweeted that “I have encouraged Judge O’Hare to accept (Garcia’s resignation) so we can move forward.”
“We have all talked about election integrity,” Barnes stated. “This resignation widens the door to positive change for all voters. Supporting the creation of an Election Integrity Task Force was all about quality, transparent elections.”.
But the Tarrant County Democratic Party expressed alarm with Garcia’s decision to resign.
“We condemn Judge Tim O’Hare and other members of the extremist Republican party for fostering an environment of misinformation and distrust in our electoral process such that a professional Elections Administrator can no longer facilitate voting in Tarrant County,” Democratic Party Chair Allison Campolo said in a statement. “Under Garcia’s leadership, our county has demonstrated fairness and accuracy in our voting systems, as verified by numerous audits and citizen recounts.
“We are concerned that O’Hare will seek to appoint an election denier to replace Garcia who will remove transparency and disenfranchise voters.”