The search for Tarrant County’s new top elections official will soon begin, as county leaders formally accept Heider Garcia’s resignation as election administrator.
The Tarrant County election commission voted unanimously Tuesday to accept the resignation. Tarrant County Judge Tim O’Hare said the next step of the process includes posting the job on the county website and advertising the job on various elections administration groups.
“The last time the county hired an elections administrator, there were not a lot of resumes that were sent in. Unfortunately, there were not a lot of qualified people,” O’Hare said.
In the resignation letter, which was made public last Monday, Garcia said differences with newly elected Judge O’Hare influenced his decision.
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“Judge O’Hare, my formula to ‘a quality transparent election’ stands on respect and zero politics; compromising on these values is not an option for me. You made it clear in our last meeting that your formula is different, thus my decision to leave,” the letter read in part.
Speaking with reporters Tuesday, O’Hare was asked to clarify what differences there were in "formulas."
O’Hare made two points.
“I don’t think it’s appropriate for an elections administrator to go out into a parking lot, take pictures of someone’s vehicle, send it to members of the press. I think that’s inappropriate,” he said.
He also referenced safety concerns that were brought forth by an election judge during early voting in the last general election.
“Nothing was done to help this person who feared for her safety and couldn’t control of the room,” he said. “The Republican party called Mr. Garcia and said, 'hi, we got this going on. We need you to do something.' The answer was, 'what do you want me to do about it?' That’s not OK. That’s not acceptable.”
Garcia did not return our request for comment Tuesday.
At the meeting, public comment was open for anyone who wished to speak on the resignation. Some commended Garcia’s work.
“He gave us faith in the process. He gave us encouragement. He was superb. It just breaks my heart that he felt he had to resign because he was going to be pressured to do things that were not up to his standard ethically,” one speaker said. “I frankly don’t think it’s going to be easy to recruit someone of his stature and standing once you run off someone who was really good.”
Another person said he was content with Garcia’s resignation, though he wanted to see him stay through November.
“Moving forward, what I’d like to our elections administrator is one that will follow the secretary of state’s laws, local laws, you know, our election laws to the T. No wavering from it,” he said.
O’Hare also weighed in on what he wants to see in the next election administrator.
“It’s got to be somebody who is a good listener. It’s got to be somebody that understands their role. Their role is to administer fair, secure, and honest elections,” he said. “This needs to be someone with some elections experience, with some experience with technology. We want someone who works well with others.”
He added, he did not want to do anything that would harm Garcia’s future employment prospects.
“At the end of the day, he chose to leave on his own. I didn’t threaten to fire him. I didn’t ask him to resign. I didn’t tell him I was going to bring him up before the election commission,” he said.
Garcia’s official last day is June 23.
