WATCH: Head of Republican Party Demands Change in Elections Office
SAN ANGELO, TX – The Tom Green County Elections Committee hosted a workshop Tuesday in hopes of finding solutions for getting election results out faster.
The workshop, held in the Keyes building in downtown San Angelo, was to give the elections committee as well as citizens of Tom Green County a chance to voice their concerns on how the elections office is operating.
The committee included County Judge Steve Floyd, County Clerk Liz McGil, Tax Assessor Becky Robles, and head of the Republican Party Jeff Betty. Democratic Party Chairman David Currie was not at the meeting.
In the crowd sat Elections Administrator Vona Hudson, her team of poll workers, and other members of the community.
The meeting began by naming all of the times that Votes were received, counted, and then posted online during election night on Mar. 3. A majority of the votes were not received by the Elections Office until after 9:00 p.m.
Election night, the Secretary of State reported approximately 5,900 votes cast at 11:00 p.m. The final total of votes cast in Tom Green County 20,279.
Hudson and her team gave reasons why votes were so late such as vote machines not operating properly and mass amounts of people showing up to the polls during the last minutes prior to polls closing at 7 p.m.
During the meeting, Betty roared that he was frustrated with the continued excuses and demanded a change. "I have the chair one more time," said Betty, meaning one more election cycle. " If we don't have substantial change in the office and substantial reassurance that something different is going to happen in the next election then the election for the Republican Party will not be held with the county elections office." Members of Hudson's volunteer staff stood by the county elections supervisor. One went to the mic and said if Hudson was fired, the volunteer workers will walk out. Betty accused her of making threats.
The committee decided to give Vona time to come up with a game plan on how she plans to increase voter result speed.
The elections committee will meet again in the coming weeks to determine what changes will be made.
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Comments
Comments
Typical of Jeff to throw a tantrum. He's seems like a bully. He has his own agenda. I would say that when half of the machines don't work, it's going to take time to get paper ballots scanned. Maybe there needs to be a new Republican chair in TGC...just saying.
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PermalinkThe speed was adequate and the accuracy not in doubt. Go find something else to complain about.
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PermalinkSounds like San Angelo's attempt at voter suppression. Solution will be to limit polls so there will be less to gather, and doing away with paper.
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PermalinkThe point should be to get the count right and accurate not fast and inaccurate. Vona Hudson has always been professional and competent with me.
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PermalinkI knew the previous Elections Administrator and I've known Ms. Hudson since she started in the position. Mr. Betty has always stuck me as a reasonable person, but he's way out of line here. I don't know about his integrity, but I know it can't surpass Ms. Hudson's and I will guarantee that! My opinion is that he should be careful what he wishes for because he could wind up with something much worse than he has if he were to look to replace her. And the lukewarm endorsement that Judge Floyd gave her is much less than she deserves. Out of deep personal knowledge I can tell you that TGC will be hard pressed to find anyone who will do as conscientious of a job as Vona Hudson!!!
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