FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE March 2, 2022 Media Contact: Genevieve Carter, 281-643-0069
Houston – Harris County Republican Party Chairman Cindy Siegel released the following statement today regarding the election results and widespread issues at polling sites across Harris County in the Primary Election:
"We have received countless complaints yesterday and today coming from voters and presiding judges and election workers across the county of voting machines that were not delivered or delivered late Tuesday morning; machines that were not operational; election workers not adequately trained; the wrong paper ballot size being delivered to certain polls and the wrong ballots being delivered to some voters.
This fiasco has been a complete failure on behalf of Democrat County Judge Lina Hidalgo’s unelected, unaccountable Elections Administrator who is tasked with managing our elections and was sold to voters as a way to make our elections more efficient in Harris County. The fault lies with Lina Hidalgo and the management of this primary that both parties contracted the Harris County Elections Administrator to run.
Yesterday the Elections Administrator said during a conference call with both political parties that she would not be able to meet the 24-hour deadline for vote count because it would take at least 500 hours to conduct the count and she needed both parties to agree to extending the deadline.
Upon the conclusion of Early Voting, there were over 1,000 'damaged ballots. However, other counties across the country using the same machines have not experienced the problems that Harris County has faced. Today it is still not clear based upon the reports from voters how many actual ‘damaged’ ballots resulted from the Election Day.
The Elections Administrator is now stating that they will complete the count by the 7 pm deadline tonight. However, the Harris County Republican Party still has serious concerns about the number of voter complaints of wrong ballots being issued and damaged ballots from our voters and election workers that need to be addressed before the vote is finalized. To that extent we will take what steps we deem necessary to ensure the integrity of the election process and that these serious issues are addressed prior to the May 24th Primary Runoff.
What happened during this primary in terms of running an election is not acceptable. Although the Republican turnout showed the commitment and motivation of our voters, our number one priority is to have an election where our voters can cast their vote at a functioning polling location and our election workers and volunteers can do their job. Our goal has always been to ensure voters have the opportunity to exercise their right to vote and that every vote is properly recorded and counted. That is why we believe there needs to be significant changes in how Harris County conducts elections going forward before another vote is cast."