Which your fathers have set."
Proverbs 22:28
A Texas Democrat Party official is now in charge of administering elections in Texas’ most populous county.Yikes.
On Tuesday, Harris County appointed Chris Hollins, a personal injury attorney and vice chair of finance for the Texas Democrats, as county clerk—the county’s chief election official.
In addition to qualms about his official party connections, residents have raised questions about potential conflicts of interest involving lucrative contracts Hollins has with the county.
Hollins steps into the position June 1, just weeks before early voting in the July 14 primary runoff begins on June 29, and with little time to learn the ropes before November’s high-turnout presidential contest. Harris is home to over 2.2 million registered voters.
Hollins takes over from Diane Trautman, who announced May 9 she was resigning after less than 18 months in office, citing “personal health concerns.”
We don't follow Harris County particularly closely. We'd by lying if we said we were intimately familiar with the specific details of this specific case. We do know, however, that between last year's municipal elections and this year's primary the Harris County clerk has recently had...rather significant issues.
Add the news story quoted above to performance of the office during the last two elections, and it doesn't take a genius to see why people assume the worst.
We've seen chatter on social media about the GOP taking a serious run at this seat. That might be appropriate (it probably is). But, even if it's the least bad realistic solution, nobody should pretend that putting a different set of partisans in charge will actually fix the problem.
Remember: It was the GOP counting the votes during last year's debacle in Midland.
Bottom Line: We don't blame the public for their lack of confidence.
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