By Karen Gleason
The 830 Times
Officials with the Texas Secretary of State’s Office are recommending the Val Verde
County Tax Assessor Collector’s Office be placed under “administrative oversight” for
defects in its voter registration records and for not keeping up-to-date precinct boundary
information.
The voter registration and precinct boundary discrepancies were among a number of
findings reported by an auditor who observed the Nov. 5, 2024 general election in the
county. Those discrepancies were detailed in a report by the Texas Secretary of State
titled, “Val Verde County 2023-2024 Preliminary Election Audit Report.” The report can
be read in its entirety here. Read report here.
A “recommendations” section at the end of the report reads, “Based on complaints
received by the Texas Secretary of State’s office and upon request of the Val Verde
County Clerk, who expressed significant concerns regarding the accuracy of the voter
registration records and jurisdictional boundaries, the Secretary of State’s Office sent
representatives to assist with updating and maintaining these boundary lines to ensure
accurate voter registration records in both 2023 and 2024.
“During the audit, it became evident that despite this personal, on-site assistance and
training, Val Verde County has not maintained accurate voter registration records. This
repeated failure to address critical issues in their voter registration process has resulted in
voters receiving incorrect ballots, registrations being duplicated and an inability to
generate accurate voter registration lists. This has impeded the free exercise of Val Verde
County citizens’ voting rights,” the report charged.
The 48-page report details each of the problems found by the auditor during the 2024
review.
Chief among the problems identified in the report are the accuracy of the county’s voter
registration list and an issue identified as “redistricting,” the maintaining of accurate
maps of county voting precincts.
Of the voter registration list, the report notes, “During a review of county data and
election documentation, numerous issues with the county voter registration list were
identified.”
Among the “findings” detailed in the “voter registration” portion of the report, “Val
Verde County does not process voter registration updates in a timely manner,” and “Val
Verde County must accurately create and maintain county and jurisdictional boundaries
in the statewide system to ensure that all voters receive the proper ballot based on their
residential address.”
County Tax Assessor Collector Elodia “Loly” Garcia, who also serves as the county’s
voter registrar, spoke to The 830 today about the findings in the report.
As to the auditor’s finding of not processing voter registration updates in a timely
manner, Garcia said, “We do process them in a timely manner. We have what comes in
the mail, what comes from the Secretary of State and what comes from DPS (the Texas
Department of Public Safety). The DPS is an electronic file, and they download it.
Whatever comes in to the office, we process it right away, immediately. There’s nothing
that’s backed up in our office.”
Garcia also spoke about a finding in the report that notes, “A review of the Secretary of
State’s cancellation trend reports indicated Val Verde County had 635 duplicate records
that were identified and cancelled for voters having a more recent registration in another
county.”
Garcia insisted her office staff does search statewide to make sure a voter registering here
is not also registered elsewhere in the state.
“I guess we’re just going to have to be more careful and make sure that we do it, and put
it in our policy to make sure that we search statewide as well as in Val Verde County,”
she said.
She added, “We do get a significant amount of statements of residence because people
move all the time. . .They bring them to us after the election, and we process them and
make changes in the computer system, and a new card (voter registration card) goes out
to them with the updated information.”
She said when someone moves out of the county and registers to vote in another Texas
county, a note is made on the person’s record of the new registration.
She said the individual would no longer be able to vote in Val Verde County if they
registered to vote elsewhere because there would be a note in the computer about the
change of residence and the new registration.
Garcia also addressed a statement in the audit report that “Val Verde County does not
have written policies and procedures for voter registration responsibilities.”
“We’ll create a policy. It’s just creating a written record of the steps of how everything is
worked, each step to follow through with the whole of the registration process,” Garcia
said.
Garcia also spoke about a finding in the voter registration section that stated, “Provisional
ballots, which may result in voter registration, were not processed in a timely manner.”
“The provisional ballots, when we get them, we review them, write down our comments,
yes or no, if they’re in the wrong precinct or what happened, why they voted
provisionally, and we make copies of the back and the front, and we use that as a voter
application because the provisional ballot means you’re registering to vote. . . A
provisional ballot is for anybody who is not on the list, and who says that they are
registered,” Garcia said.
Garcia also spoke about the maps of the voting precincts.
“The one that we had a lot of trouble with was Qualia (Drive),” Garcia said.
She said the problems identified regarding the jurisdictional maps “have been corrected.”
“And we will continue to review them as things change,” she added.
Garcia said the “administrative oversight” recommended in the preliminary audit will
mean sending staff from the Secretary of State’s office to her office.
“They’re going to be sending people out to sit with us and probably go out on the streets
with us to make sure everything is right, and then we can also ask them about things like
when they say, ‘provisional ballots were not entered,’ there were only three, and I know
there was a larger amount that were received, and I want to ask them, what steps did we
miss?” Garcia said.
“I’m going to ask them, what other steps are we missing, that you want us to do?” Garcia
added.
Garcia said she has not been informed when the state observers will be sent.
“I want to let people know we work hard on this, and it’s not always easy, and we do call
the Secretary of State’s office and ask a lot of questions,” Garcia said.
Val Verde County Clerk Teresa Esther Chapoy also spoke to The 830 Times about the
report.
She first reminded local voters that the report is preliminary, and though the report reads
that representatives of the Secretary of State’s office were sent to the county “upon
request of the Val Verde County Clerk,” Chapoy said she did not file a complaint or
specifically ask for anyone to conduct an audit.
“I never called or filed a complaint, but when I first became county clerk and went to the
first election law seminar, I went straight to them and said, ‘I’m brand-new. I don’t know
what I’m doing. I need help,’ and then they asked me what I needed help with, and I
already knew that I had problems with voter registration. I did not name any specific
individuals, but we did have problems there, because there were all sorts of issues coming
out,” Chapoy said.
Chapoy also addressed a finding in the report that dealt with her office, involving training
of election workers.
The report reads, “Val Verde County must ensure that all election judges and clerks
successfully complete the in-depth hands-on training necessary to properly set up all
election equipment and to troubleshoot common operational issues as they arise. Currently hands-on training is optional.”
Chapoy said all of the election workers receive hands-on training on the
equipment and procedures each one of them will work on during the election.
County Judge Lewis G. Owens Jr. was slightly less sanguine than Garcia or Chapoy
when asked about the report, which he said he has forwarded to each of the
commissioners.
Owens said Garcia informed him Friday that the Secretary of State’s office had found
some “issues” during the last general election.
Owens said he will place an item on the agenda of the next county commissioners court
meeting to discuss the Secretary of State’s report, and said his main frustration is that
“problems that are fixed don’t seem to stay fixed.”
Owens said he will call for an internal audit, especially of voter registration and precinct
boundary issues, noting in the last election he recalls two persons living in the same
house getting ballots to vote in two different precincts.
“I think we need to police ourselves,” Owens said.
Owens said he will also resurrect a discussion the court previously had about setting up a
county elections office, an office that would be solely responsible for dealing with all
aspects of local elections.
The judge also spoke about accountability.
“From here on out, and for the rest of my term, if elected officials are not capable of
doing their job, I will bring that out to the general public versus trying to take care of it
behind closed doors. And if need be, and if it costs me my election if I decide to run
again, I will file against these elected officials to be removed, if they are not doing their
jobs. It’s gotten to the point, and I’m not picking on Ms. Garcia or on anybody else, I’m saying this across the board, as a commissioner and as county judge, you don’t ever want
to go down that road, but there have been instances while I’ve been here, that somebody
should have picked up the ball. I didn’t do it. I’m at fault. We’re not doing this anymore,”
Owens said.
The writer can be reached at delriomagnoliafan@gmail.com .
