Waiting for the vote count to finish in Harris County after the polls closed on Election Day was like watching paint dry.
Political fans and news media often spend hours on election night constantly refreshing the results page on harrisvotes.com, waiting and begging for new data.
Harris County has historically been one of the last, if not the last, counties to submit final vote results to the state on election night. And the situation appears to have gotten worse over the past few years.
In 2021, the county did not complete its Election Day vote count until 8:30 a.m. the following morning. Turnout in the Nov. 2 election was 9.2%, with most votes cast during the early voting period.
Election experts attribute the long wait times to the Texas Election Code, county officials’ adherence to best practices for counting votes and the size of Harris County.
Both situations result in a lengthy ballot counting process that county workers may have to wait until the morning after Election Day to complete.
“It’s a whole different story when you’re dealing with these large counties and metropolitan areas,” said Jennifer Morrell, CEO of the Elections Group, a national organization that works with state and local election jurisdictions to help improve election processes and procedures.
Elections in Harris County are conducted by County Clerk Teneshia Hudspeth’s office, but election policy — everything from the type of identification voters must carry, the type of voting machines voters use, to how and when votes are counted — is set at the state level.
Hector de Leon, senior adviser for government affairs and community engagement in the Harris County Clerk’s Office, said complying with state policies on ballot counting is time-consuming, especially in a county the size of Harris, which can lead to publicly perceived delays.
”When you don’t have the basic principles in place under the law, it always comes across in a negative light, both from the perspective of the election officials and from the outside public or the media,” De Leon said.
Once the polls close on Election Day, each of the county’s 700 polling places must be properly closed, equipped with the necessary scanners and ballot drop boxes, and transported to Harris County Vote Counting Headquarters.
Election judges must also complete paperwork that includes information such as the number of voters who showed up at the polling place and the number of ballots scanned that day.
Clifford Tatum, a former Harris County elections administrator, said the process could take about an hour and could be slowed down further if voters are still waiting in line to vote at 7 p.m., when polls officially close.
DeLeon said there will be six “collection sites” in Harris County this year. After the election judge closes the polling center, the voting equipment will be transported to a designated relay station where the first votes will be counted.
Tammy Patrick, CEO of the Election Center Project, noted that the rally booths are more common in large election districts like Harris County. The Election Center is a national nonprofit that provides training, certification and support to election administrators and voter registration officials.
Those polling stations will use one of two identical memory cards inside each ballot scanning machine to count votes and transmit results to the county’s tabulation center, De Leon said.
According to the Texas Central Vote Counting Center Manual, these vote counting centers follow the same rules as county vote counting centers. This means that before the actual vote counting can begin, there are a number of checks and equipment authentications that must be performed.
According to a 2022 video produced by the office of the former Harris County elections administrator, the process involves reviewing paperwork completed by each election judge, matching serial numbers on the different devices presented at each polling place, and ensuring paper ballots are securely stored in case votes need to be hand-counted or the election audited.
Voting equipment was moved from the rally to the Harris County Vote Count headquarters. This year, the Harris County Vote Count Center will move from NRG Stadium to Morales Road near George Bush International Airport. The recount is taking place there.
De Leon said the second vote count is meant to verify the results of the first count and help election workers determine if there are any discrepancies.
He said it was unclear whether this new double-counting process, required because of the use of these polling stations, would impact the time it takes to fully publish unofficial election results.
Once the votes from each machine are counted, they must be verified and checked by representatives of the two major political parties before being uploaded to the county’s unofficial vote-counting website.
In addition to counting in-person ballots, election workers must also process and count mail-in ballots on Election Day, which typically involves several steps and verification procedures, Morrell said.
Morrell noted that time can quickly and easily add up during the process, from sorting envelopes and matching received ballots with the voters who cast them to simply opening the ballots and feeding them into counting machines.
Given the requirements that election workers must follow and the fact that Election Day involves thousands of machines at 700 polling places across more than 1,700 square miles, Rachel Ory, director of the Bipartisan Policy Center’s Elections Project, said Harris County is doing pretty well.
“I don’t want to say they’re behind because I think in many ways their policies are actually very good,” Ori said. “In our large district with over 2.5 million voters, some of the obstacles are insurmountable.”
Tim Carlin is a Houston Landing reporter covering government. Tim, an Ohio native, came to Houston after spending a year in Greenville, South Carolina, where he covered Greenville County government for The New York Times. More articles by Tim Carlin
Post time: Feb-12-2025