By Karen Gleason
The 830 Times
Commissioners court members voted unanimously Wednesday to direct the county tax assessor collector and voter registrar to conduct an internal audit of provisional ballots cast in the 2024 general election following the release of a state report of problems in that office.
The commissioners court’s vote followed a discussion of a report issued by the Texas Secretary of State’s office in late July and titled “Val Verde County 2023-2024 Preliminary Election Audit Report.” (See separate story here.)
The court will also require Val Verde County Tax Assessor Collector Elodia “Loly” Garcia, who also serves as the county’s voter registrar, to look at any other ballots there were problems with in the last election and to make reports on the progress she and her office are making on the discrepancies detailed in the state report at every meeting of the commissioners court.
County Judge Lewis G. Owens Jr. initiated the discussion of the report, recounting that Garcia had informed him about the state’s findings shortly after they were released and that he had received a copy of the report from Val Verde County Clerk Teresa Esther Chapoy. Neither Garcia nor Chapoy were at Wednesday’s meeting since both were away at out-of-the-county training events.
Owens said he sent copies of the report to each of the commissioners, noting, “When you go through the report, the state did a very good job of criticizing our voter registrar, our tax assessor collector. And that’s bad, but, as you read through it, it says ‘Val Verde County’ and now, as the figurehead of the county and part of a court, it doesn’t look good.”
The judge added, “I will tell you all that we have had issues. We’ve had issues with this previous election and the one before that. My biggest concern is, I think there is a lack of training, and again, I don’t want to talk bad about (Garcia) because she’s not here to defend herself. I think that there will need to be training within her office that’s not been done, and that’s according to this report. There will need to be policies written. . . and individuals trained on (the written policies).”
Owens said he has already received phone calls asking if the results of last year’s elections could be affected by information in the report, and he told the court and audience, “There’s nothing (in the report) that would change the results of those elections, and I know that’s a bold statement, but that’s the truth. Nothing that went wrong would change the results.”
He said there were individuals who voted in the primaries that were not allowed to vote in the subsequent runoff because the problems with the voter registrations were found and corrected.
But Owens expressed his frustration that problems that are found and corrected sometimes don’t always stay that way.
“One of the things that we have an issue with is that (the problems are) fixed, and then we go to another election, and it’s the same problem again, with the same people. I don’t understand how in God’s green earth, you can fix something and it’s screwed up again. I just do not understand, verdad?” Owens said.
The county judge said a former commissioner in 2012 or 2013 floated the idea of the county establishing an elections administration office that would deal solely with elections.
“We can’t even consider that because we have an issue that we need to go fix today,” Owens said.
He added, “I do think that at some point, this court is going to need to take action to move this to one department. That way you don’t have the finger pointing, or, somebody has responsibility and it doesn’t take you 10 days to get an answer. You go to one department and that one department handles the voter registra(tion) and handles the election, and there’s only one department that’s blamed and to me it’s just easier to fix.”
Owens also said the court needs to hold department heads accountable for their actions, and he accepted blame for not bringing some problems to the public’s attention.
Owens said, “It’s like everything else, every department, everybody’s always the king or queen in their own kingdom until the shit hits the fan, and then it’s the court that has to go fix it.”
Commissioner Pct. 1 Kerr Wardlaw spoke about some of the problems he had encountered in his election to the court, adding he believes some of those problems still exist.
Owens agreed, and he and the court spent some time talking about specific areas where they have encountered problems. Owens noted that he and Commissioner Pct. 2 Juan Carlos Vazquez and Commissioner Pct. 4 Gustavo “Gus” Flores were on the court during the last round of redistricting, when maps were drawn to delineate voting precincts boundaries.
Owens again said the court must hold department heads accountable, adding he believes Garcia (the tax assessor collector) must come before the court every two weeks to provide updates on what part of the state’s audit she and her staff are addressing.
Owens said, “(The state told) us what’s wrong, and they tell us how to fix it. It’s not rocket science. I will put this item on the agenda again every two weeks, so we can get updates from Ms. Garcia as to what is it that we’re tackling. Again, it’s frustrating, and if it was just the department head taking heat on something that the department head did and it lies on them, okay, but it doesn’t. It lies on commissioners court, on Val Verde County, and when it says Val Verde County, that upsets me, because now I’m getting blamed and the commissioners court is getting blamed.”
Owens said he wanted to hear the commissioners’ thoughts.
He said, “We have problems. The thing about this is going to be, how do we move forward? How does this court move forward? I would love to have a motion to do an internal audit on individuals we know that were wrong and make sure they were fixed and stayed fixed. That, to me, is a good step. Before that motion is made, I think every commissioner needs to have an opportunity to talk.”
Owens then called on Commissioner Pct. 3 Fernando Garcia, who formerly served as the chair of the Val Verde County Republican Party and has worked previous elections.
Garcia told the court, “I read (the report) twice, and I recognize a lot of the errors or missteps result from the lack of a written plan. How to process a statement of residence. How to process the provisional ballots. . . I think if she were to get written procedures, it would solve a lot of her problems.”
Garcia cautioned that some of the “fixes” would not be put to the test until the next election cycle.
He said, “A lot of stuff we can fix now, but we’re not going to know if it’s fixed until we have an election, and I think it’s all fixable. I mean, there’s nothing here that’s insurmountable. I just think it’s going to take some patience and some work.”
Garcia said he had brought some problems to Garcia’s attention, and she had fixed those problems.
He said, “I know she has a tough job, but this is such a critical job that it creates doubt on the elections and who won and who didn’t win and . . . it’s important for her to do her job correctly, so that people in our community can have faith in the results of the races.”
The other commissioners also spoke about problems they had encountered in their precincts.
Owens then reiterated he would like an internal audit conducted and for Garcia to appear before the court at every meeting to talk about what she has worked on.
“Is this going to be a mandatory audit?” Flores asked.
“It will be a court order,” County Attorney David Martinez said.
Owens then said he would make the motion “that the tax assessor collector’s office, voter registrar’s office, conduct an audit of provisional ballots and ballots that she knew may have had issues with voting in the right precincts and that she brings that report to show that those (issues) have been corrected, that they were corrected, that they stayed corrected, and that she begins to come every two weeks to give us an update on the Secretary of State’s audit that was conducted.”
Wardlaw gave the second, and the court voted unanimously to approve Owens’ motion.
The writer can be reached at delriomagnoliafan@gmail.com
