Hey, y’all! 

I just got back from the Austin area after attending one of my favorite conferences — the Texas Secretary of State’s annual election law seminar. Election officials got a refresher on the basics of voter registration, how to handle provisional ballots, election security best practices, and much more. 

This year, state officials got creative, hosting a Jeopardy-esque election trivia session. In another session, they gave attendees yellow and red cards they could pull out to test their knowledge about what poll watchers can and can’t do at the polls. I tested my own knowledge and didn’t do too badly, y’all! 

I also got to meet new Secretary of State Robert Howden and told him he’d be hearing from me often as I continue to keep close watch over his agency. 

In his address to the more than 1,000 election officials in attendance,  Howden said he’ll continue the work former Secretary of State Jane Nelson started. That includes supporting the work of election officials and providing resources to the state agency, which under Nelson’s watch grew from 30 staffers — including election law experts — to about 100. 

“Elections have become one of the most scrutinized responsibilities in government. Every decision you all make is examined. Every deadline matters, and every election is conducted under an intense public spotlight,” Howden said. “While Texans may disagree about politics, they should never lose sight of the professionalism required to administer elections fairly and according to the law. I appreciate the work each and every one of you does to uphold this standard.”

Howden also selected the four counties that will be audited on election law compliance. As required by law, every two years, the secretary of state selects the counties at random. Two must be large counties, with populations of 300,000 or more, and two small counties with populations of fewer than 300,000. 

This is the second time the secretary of state used a lottery tumbler to do the drawing of the counties. Howden’s staffers dropped in 16 balls with the names of large counties and later 234 balls with names of smaller counties. You can watch a video of it here. (Bell, Brazoria, Real and Val Verde counties were not included in the drawing since they were selected in 2024.)   

The two large counties selected were Harris and Tarrant. Both counties have been audited by the state in the past. Tarrant passed the audit with flying colors in 2021, while Harris that same year was in need of improvement. Harris, home to Houston and the state’s largest county, was also audited in 2022 and made a lot of improvements since, according to officials with the secretary of state’s office. State Republicans in 2023 passed a law that removed the election administration position in Harris and reassigned election duties to the county clerk and voter registration duties to the county’s tax assessor-collector. This will be the first audit conducted under the new setup.

The two smaller counties selected were Hall County, near the Texas panhandle, and Webb County in South Texas. 

The state has been conducting the audits since 2021. Although election officials are coming around to the idea that the audits are not as punitive as they seem, but more about helping election officials improve, the room is always quiet as they wait for counties to be picked out of the tumbler. Then there are always audible gasps, followed by some cheers of relief from those who were not picked. 

What do you think of the counties that will be audited this round? If you’re an election official who also attended the conference, let me know what you thought of it this year. You can reach me at [email protected]. 

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