Heider Garcia’s time in office saw election audits, death threats then a resignation

Brayden Garcia
Updated ·4 min read
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Tarrant County elections administrator Heider Garcia has resigned from his position he has held since 2018.

In a letter obtained by the Star-Telegram, dated April 16 and addressed to County Judge Tim O’Hare and County Administrator G.K. Maenius, Garcia cites a meeting with O’Hare and different ideas for running transparent elections as the reason for his departure.

In the section of the letter addressed to O’Hare, Garcia wrote that his “formula to ‘administer a quality transparent election’ stands on respect and zero politics” and that compromising on those values wasn’t an option for him.

Garcia and elections administrators across the country have been under fire following the 2020 presidential elections. Here’s a timeline of Garcia’s time serving Tarrant County.

Heider Garcia hired out of California

  • Ahead of the March election, Garcia was hired as Tarrant County elections administrator in February 2018.

  • Garcia was hired out of Auburn, California, where he served as elections manager for Placer County.

  • Garcia replaced Nathan Neblett, the Houston man who held the job for two weeks in January 2018 before county officials decided to release him from the post.

‘None of the issues’ have to do with new voting machines

  • In the November 2019 election, voters faced a few issues when voting on new machines purchased by the county.

  • The Tarrant County Commissioners Court approved the $11 million plan for new electronic voting machines in August 2019. Garcia was on-hand to give voters a demonstration of how to use the machines ahead of the November election.

  • A few of the issues reported at the time for the November 2019 election, were that some machines weren’t working, paper jams occurred and ballots didn’t print properly. However, Garcia said the issues were not tied to the new machines.

“None of the issues that were being discussed Tuesday have to do with the equipment,” Garcia told the Star-Telegram at the time. “They are all related to the human factor.

Gearing up for 2020 election

Ahead of the 2020 presidential election and still under pandemic limitations, Garcia and Tarrant County geared up for a busy election season.

Due to the pandemic, the county received over 30,000 mail-in ballot applications ahead of the November election. Using partial funds from the county’s roughly $2.1 million in federal funds from the Coronavirus Aid, Relief and Economic Security Act, they purchased additional printers, scanners and faster inserting equipment.

At the November 2020 election, the county declared an election emergency and needed more mail-in ballot counters after roughly 17,000 to 18,000 ballots couldn’t be read by ballot-sorting machines.

An extra 56 people were brought in to help recount the mail-in ballots that had the printing error. A few days after the election emergency, Tarrant County finished counting ballots.

2020 election challenges, audits and death threats

In September 2021, the Texas Secretary of State’s Office announced it would audit election results in Tarrant, Dallas, Harris and Collin counties.

The audit was to test voting machines accuracy, cybersecurity and identifying and removing ineligible voters who cast ballots in 2020. A few months later in January 2022, results of the audit were released which showed few problems for Tarrant County.

Several Texas counties were required to do a partial manual recount at some of its voting locations within 72 hours of polls closing. About 17,000 to 18,000 of the mail-in ballots in Tarrant County had defective bar codes, which required the partial manual recount.

Tarrant County found no discrepancies between its electronic and manual counts at seven election precincts, the report shows. The results were as expected and Garcia said he would continue to work with Secretary of State on the audit.

In August 2022, the Texas Tribune reported that Garcia had received death threats after the 2020 presidential election. Garcia’s home address was leaked and he also received messages threatening his children.

Announcement of election integrity unit lead to resignation

County judge Tim O’Hare, district attorney Phil Sorrells and Sheriff Bill Waybourn, announced the formation of an election integrity unit in Feburary 2023.

No members of the Tarrant County Commissioners Court were told about the unit ahead of the announcement and neither was Garcia.

“You made it clear in our last meeting that your formula is different, thus, my decision to leave,” Garcia wrote in his resignation letter addressed to O’Hare. “I wish you the best; Tarrant County deserves that you find success.”

Throughout Garcia’s time in Tarrant County, his office had undergone multiple measures to ensure election transparency, like inviting members of the public to the elections office to participate in a mock election while workers tested machines.

Garcia’s last day will be June 23 to allow his staff to complete duties surrounding upcoming municipal elections and potential runoffs.