How a new law eliminating Harris County’s elections department will affect elections.

A new state law eliminating the elections department in Harris County is likely to cause large disruptions and problems for voters in this fall’s elections and potentially 2024, experts say.

Harris County has sued to block the law, but unless a judge intervenes, the county’s two-year-old elections department will be eliminated on Sept. 1, and the office’s duties will revert to being split between the county clerk and the tax assessor-collector.

The timing of the law means the transition of election duties would happen while election offices across the state prepare for the November elections.

How did we get here?

While numerous counties in Texas have created an elections department and appointed an elections administrator, Harris County’s department has a history of problems.

County leaders initially appointed an inexperienced elections administrator and the department failed to report unofficial primary election vote totals to the state by the deadline required by law.

A new administrator was appointed in 2022, but in November's election, Harris County had to extend voting for an hour after various polling places experienced problems with voting machines, paper ballot shortages and long waiting times.

Harris County was also at the center of sweeping Republican legislation passed in 2021 to further restrict the state’s voting process and narrow local control of elections. That law banned 24-hour voting and drive-thru voting, which were disproportionately used by voters of color.

What does the law do?

The law bars counties with a population of over 3.5 million people from having an elections administrator and requires all of the administrator’s duties to be transferred to the county clerk and the tax assessor-collector.

Harris County is the only county in Texas with over 3.5 million people. The second-most populous county, Dallas, has 2.6 million residents.

How could the court intervene?

Harris County sued earlier this month to stop the new law from going into effect, though a court hearing hasn’t been scheduled.

Harris County Attorney Christian Menefee said in the county’s lawsuit filing that the elimination of the county’s elections department and the transfer of election duties to the county clerk and the tax assessor-collector — only six weeks before the November election — could lead to “not only inefficiencies, office instability, and increased costs to the county, but it will also disrupt an election the Harris County [election administrator] has been planning for months.”

A district judge could prevent the law from going into effect Sept. 1, leaving the county’s elections department intact.