By Karen Gleason
The 830 Times
The State of Texas has not taken over elections in Val Verde County, members of county commissioners court were told Wednesday.
The court discussed the issue following the publication of a story in The Texas Tribune, headlined “Texas takes over voter registration in Val Verde County amid struggles,” and published June 12 on the Tribune’s website.
on Wednesday about an article in The Texas Tribune about the state’s involvement in the local
election and voter registration processes. (Photo by Karen Gleason)
In August 2025, the Texas Secretary of State’s Office published a preliminary election audit report and placed the Val Verde County Tax Assessor-Collector’s Office under administrative oversight for defects in its voter registration records and for not keeping up-to-date precinct boundary information. See story published by The 830 Times on Aug. 7, 2025. (Include link to our story.)
The audit report can be read in its entirety here. (Include link to report.)
During Wednesday’s regular June meeting of Val Verde County Commissioners Court, County Judge Lewis G. Owens Jr. asked County Tax Assessor-Collector Elodia “Loly” Garcia, who also serves as the county’s voter registrar, “Are we or are we not under the control of the state?”
Garcia responded, “We have not been taken over by the state.”
“Elections, at all,” Owens said.
“No,” Garcia said.
“So your comment would be that you’re not,” Owens said.
“No, we have not been taken over by the state,” Garcia repeated.
Owens then asked Val Verde County Clerk Teresa Esther Chapoy to make a statement about the issue to the court “and express if we have or if we haven’t.”
Chapoy told the court, “Commissioners and judge, thank you very much for the opportunity to explain. The report by The Texas Tribune was very irresponsible, and I took offense to it because that is incorrect. Our elections have not been seized.
“We only had a preliminary report (from the state), and we do not expect the final report until, possibly August, and we’ll be going to a conference here pretty soon, and we’ll find out what the audit revealed, but it was irresponsible reporting on the part of The Texas Tribune, and I appreciated The 830 Times giving us an explanation on that,” Chapoy added.
After she finished, Commissioner Pct. 4 Gustavo “Gus” Flores asked, “So, Ms. Chapoy, we’re not being invaded by the state?”
“No, we’re not,” Chapoy replied.
Later, during the County Judge’s Comments portion of the agenda, Owens addressed the issue further.
Owens told the court, “In response to The Texas Tribune, (Chapoy) used the word ‘irresponsible.’ I say it’s a lie. They just lied. This is a story that’s been ongoing. We’ve been trying to deal with it for a year, right at a year. And we’ve dealt with it. We’ve tried to deal with it.
“We’ve gone piece-by-piece, part-by-part. (We’ve had) five or six items on (past) commissioners court meetings, and it’s just a damn shame that you have somebody that picks it up almost a year later, and then that gets picked up in Houston, Dallas, everywhere else, but it’s not the truth. Absolutely not the truth, so, I’m not going to call it false; it’s a lie. She lied. They lied. The person lied, and it’s that simple.
“It’s a shame we’re having to deal with it. We will welcome any audit by the state, and it’s just going to make us better. It’s that simple. If there’s things we need to fix, we’re going to fix them. End of story,” Owens added.
Immediately after receiving the preliminary audit last year, Owens and the commissioners court called for monthly reports from Garcia on the work she and her staff are doing to rectify the deficiencies found in the state’s preliminary audit. The court also approved a new policy aimed at correcting the deficiencies.
The writer can be reached at delriomagnoliafan@gmail.com.
