Election 2020: It Seems the Entire Country Suffers Ballot Count Delays, But Not in San Angelo

SAN ANGELO, TX – In the video above, Tom Green County Judge Steve Floyd told San Angelo LIVE's Publisher Joe Hyde that the Tom Green County Elections Office fixed its delayed reporting problem that was highlighted during the March 2020 primary elections. In a highly contested Republican primary fight for the candidate to win the Republican nod for congressman from CD-11 back in March, our county lagged all 28 other counties in the district, making it impossible to call San Angelo's pick for the office, August Pfluger, the nominee. The race wasn't called until well after midnight because of the Tom Green County Elections Office, while other more populated counties, like Midland, had released results hours earlier. Pfluger eventually won the contest with greater that 50 percent plus one vote, eliminating the need for a runoff.

Following the Super Tuesday Election in March, the Tom Green County Elections Office received backlash due to a lack speed with get results reported to the Secretary of State. After that election, the elections office came under fire from, in particular, the head of the Tom Green Republican Party, Jeff Betty. Here is the video:

After this special meeting with Tom Green County Elections Committee, Tom Green County Elections Administrator Vona Hudson and her team created a plan to speed up the process while keeping the efficiency.

"This was by far the hardest election I've been apart of since I became the Administrator in 2006," said Hudson. "I am just so pleased and blessed for the people that help. This year there were so many last minute volunteers and extra poll workers. It was really such a blessing."

County Judge Floyd praised the Elections Office's effort this election as they were able to get the early voting results published just as the polls closed at 7 p.m. and final voting results by 10:11 p.m. 

Reasons for the increase in speed come from a number of reasons. 

One reason is the number of early voting ballots that the elections office received. After nearly 40 percent of registered voters cast their ballots early, allowing the elections office to get a head start. The 27,587 early votes were counted by 6:43 p.m. and released when the polls closed. 

The second reason was the number of mail-in ballots received. According to Hudson approximately 6,000 mail-in ballots were received for this election. "This year we were able to process and scan the mail-ballots prior to election night," said Hudson. She claimed this new procedure helped them count the votes faster once they were able to begin.

The final reasons for increased speed were the number of polling locations and how the ballots cast were delivered to elections office. This year, there were 20 different polling locations, and that included a drive-thru location during early voting. At these locations Hudson and crew were able to take the memory card from the polls to the elections office right at 7 p.m. In previous years, poll workers were forced to wait to return the results hours later after the locations were completely closed down. 

"First off let me give my absolute appreciation to Vona Hudson and our elections office," said County Judge Steve Floyd. "They just did an evaluation and it was simple, logistical things that needed to get fixed."

The number one pain in Hudson's side during Super Tuesday was Chairmen of the Tom Green County Republican Party Jeff Betty. He skewered Hudson for consistently reporting Tom Green County vote tallies later than peer counties across the state. San Angelo LIVE! reached out to him but so far has not returned our call. Although we don't know his feeling regarding this year's election Judge Floyd assured us that he would more than likely was pleased.

"So Vona and the Elections Office has redeemed herself with the Republican Party Chair?" asked Hyde.

"Earlier, when I talked to Jeff Betty he had a smile on his face so I'm sure that means he's pretty good" assured Judge Floyd.

As for Pfluger? He was elected the next congressman for CD-11 by a countywide margin of 72.71 percent over Democrat challenger Jon Mark Hogg and libertarian Wacey Alpha Cody. Across CD-11, Pfluger won with 79.7 percent. There are still 4 percent of the ballots still outstanding, but those ballots aren't from Tom Green County.