Nov. 5th Election is Over, But Work Remains for County Election Officials

Another Election Day has come and gone, but the work for election administrators across the state is not over yet.

On Tuesday, voters across the state voted on 10 constitutional amendments approved last summer by two-thirds of Texas legislators during the 86th Legislative session. Heider Garcia, elections administrator for Tarrant County, said final results must be certified by Nov. 18.

Certification requires a partial manual recount by state law, Garcia said.

"The state is going to choose some random precincts and locations and tell us, count the ballots and let's see if they match the printed reports from election night," he told NBC 5.

They also must process all provisional ballots, which include voters who did not have an ID on Tuesday.

There's about 300 provisional ballots in Tarrant County to process, Garcia said.

"For every person who had to cast a provisional ballot, we have to do research on the record and give that information to the ballot board so they decide which ones get counted and which ones get rejected," he explained. "We also have deadlines to wait for certain ballots -- overseas voters who may have mailed them. Some of them may have extended deadlines, so they may come in this week or early week and we have to add them to the count."

Tarrant County had an 11% turnout Tuesday, which was higher than expected when compared to past elections of this type, according to Garcia.

He told NBC 5 most of the feedback they've gotten from voters and workers at polling locations has been positive, though "there's always opportunities to improve."

In this case, he pointed to the new voting machines. Some have suggested more in-depth training is needed, he said.

Fort Worth resident Len Woodard said when he went to his precinct Tuesday, there was an issue with the machines and he did not get to vote.

"There was a line developing, and they sort of came out and told us they were having trouble with the voting machines. I kind of had a long lunch anyway, so I just turned around and left," Woodard told NBC 5. "We could tell that based on how they were talking that it was going to be a while for them to figure out what was going on."

Moving forward with the 2020 election, where interest is already high, Garcia said they want to hear from the public and welcome any feedback.

Voters in Tarrant County can provide input by emailing electionsinfo@tarrantcounty.com, calling 817-831-8683, or visiting www.tarrantcounty.com.