Hill County officials were left scrambling to finalize election preparations after the sudden termination of Elections Administrator Aaron Torres Friday, October 17, the final business day before early voting began.
Both the Hill County Elections Commission and Hill County Commissioners Court met in emergency sessions Friday morning and voted to terminate Torres, after County Judge Shane Brassell said that the elections administrator had abandoned his post as the county looked into preparations for the upcoming election.
Brassell assured the public that the election would be run properly, and a team of county officials was working to prepare for early voting with the help of the Texas Secretary of State’s Office. Under state law, the election will be under the leadership of County Clerk Nicole Tanner and Tax Assessor-Collector Krissi Hightower, while District Clerk Marchel Eubank is also spearheading the effort due to her previous experience conducting elections. The county judge, County Attorney David Holmes and party chairs are also involved.
Brassell said that the county first raised concerns in July after the Secretary of State’s Office questioned why Hill County had a backlog of more than 600 unprocessed voter registrations. Torres attributed the delays to a statewide elections system update that has been causing problems for counties across Texas. By Thursday, October 16, he told the Elections Commission the backlog had been reduced to about 350 registrations, though new submissions continued to arrive.
County elections officials across the state have reported problems with the newly updated statewide voter registration system, called TEAM, as they prepare for November elections.
The Elections Commission met last Thursday to review the backlog and discuss Torres’ employment. Hill County Democratic Party Chair Thom Hansen initially read a statement defending Torres, saying that the issues were statewide. But after Torres did not provide satisfactory answers to the commission later in the meeting, Hansen agreed that there was a problem and voted with the rest of the commission to recommend terminating him the next day.
Republican Party Chair Will Orr questioned Torres Thursday about preparations for the election. The conversation revealed that not all polling locations had been confirmed, election judges had not received training and ballot proofs had not been sent to entities holding elections until Wednesday night. Torres blamed delays on the state’s support.
The commission convened in executive session and stated when open session resumed that Torres would keep his job, but the commission would be heavily involved in the November election. Brassell told Torres that the commission wanted a daily report on what he had achieved that day, what the goals were for the next day and an update on the voter registration backlog progress.
Brassell said that he visited the elections office later in the day Thursday to deliver a reprimand for Torres’ dismissive attitude at the meeting, but he was not in the office, and an employee reported that he had no intention of returning.
Complications continued as two school districts reported issues with their ballot proofs and county officials discovered they could not access the ballot network or other election systems. Brassell said at Friday’s emergency meeting that Torres had refused to assist the IT director, saying he was “leaving them holding the bag,” prompting the director to lock him out of the system. Brassell said that Torres had effectively abandoned his post.
The Elections Commission voted Friday to recommend Torres’ termination, which the Commissioners Court immediately approved. Brassell told commissioners that the office was far from ready for early voting, citing additional problems such as the closure of Votec, leaving no support for any issues with the county’s voter check-in machines, and the absence of contracts for Hubbard and Itasca school district elections.
Brassell said that Secretary of State officials informed the county that Torres had treated them unprofessionally, and city representatives said they had not received follow-up.
To address the immediate election needs, the court approved election agreements with entities and authorized Brassell to sign last-minute contracts that may be needed, such as a contract analyst to assist with the Votec machines. A Hart Intercivic representative was also expected to be on site during early voting to ensure there are no issues with the company’s ballot-printing machines during the election.
Elected officials and outside assistants worked Friday and through the weekend to complete logic and accuracy tests, finalize ballots for mail distribution and prepare for early voting Monday.
Despite the upheaval, Brassell expressed confidence that the team could have all preparations in place for early voting. After the election, the county plans to hire a permanent elections administrator, though officials emphasized that getting through the upcoming election is the immediate priority.
