Wichita County to hire election administrator
Wichita County will have an election administrator for future elections. The position was created by county commissioners Monday morning. It comes in the wake of considerable criticism over the handling of past elections.
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The administrator will take over the duties of voter registrar and all other election duties currently held by the county clerk.
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“All of us on this court are aware of the shortcomings that have been revealed with the retention and organization of election records dating back a couple of years,” County Judge Jim Johnson said. “All of us are aware of the need to improve and instill confidence of our residents and voters.”
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Johnson said elections laws have also become significantly more complicated and specialized over the past decade and the job has become too big to be just one of several duties handled by the county clerk.
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The election administrator will be hired by and accountable to a newly formed County Elections Commission. By law, that commission will consist of the county judge, the county clerk, the county tax appraiser-collector and the chairpersons of the county Democratic and Republican parties. The commissioners’ court would retain the power to abolish the position if members decided to do so.
Johnson said a search for an administrator will begin right away and the person will be in place by September to be in charge by the November 2023 elections. The county will have major elections to handle in 2024 with party primaries and a national election.
The county’s handling of elections in 2020 came under fire from critics who claimed some votes were unaccounted for, some voters were given wrong ballots and laws were allegedly broken. A subsequent investigation by Commissioner Mickey Fincannon and new county clerk Annette Stanley discovered ballots and other voting documents strewn about in a warehouse.
Annie Jackson, one of the more vocal critics said she was pleased the county created the position.
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“We’ve been pushing it a long time,” she said. “Had this commission listened to Lori (former County Clerk Lori Bohannon) when she asked for an election administrator maybe we wouldn’t have found ourselves in the mess we found.”
Bohannon said in 2020 when the issue was brought up that out of the 254 counties in Texas, only 12 had county clerks that also did elections and voter registration.
Jackson expressed concern that Johnson supposedly announced to a meeting of Republican women that Robin Fincannon, wife of the commissioner, would become the elections administrator.
“That’s nepotism. That’s out of line,” Jackson said.
She said Johnson has since “walked back” the comment.
Johnson said he never made the remark.
In Texas, elections may be run by either elected county clerks or by appointed election administrators chosen through the procedure adopted Monday by the county commissioners.
This article originally appeared on Wichita Falls Times Record News: Wichita County to hire election administrator
