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Hours after Harris County completed tallying its votes in the 2022 primaries, Harris County Republican Party Chairwoman Cindy Siegel demanded that Isabel Longoria, the county's elections administrator, vacate the position or county leaders to terminate her from it.
The Texas secretary of state's office on the night of the election announced that Harris County's results would be delayed, to which Longoria said she had issues with the state law requiring votes to be submitted within 24 hours.
Harris County completed the vote count and published the final unofficial results after midnight Thursday.
Siegel asserted that Longoria is the least qualified person to oversee the county's elections, according to Houston CBS affiliate KHOU reported.
“Today you have seen what happens when you put the wrong person in the job,” Siegel said, KHOU reported. “This election was an unmitigated disaster.”
Longoria didn't respond to Siegel's comments, but Longoria's office issued a statement, the station reported.
"The Harris County Office of Elections Administrator is committed to providing essential voting and voter registration services to the residents of Harris County; increasing access to the vote and ensuring that every eligible resident is able to cast a ballot and that ballot is counted accurately and securely," the statement issued to media said. "We have always worked with the judges and commissioners court office to continue improving the essential service that we provide and will continue to do so analyzing every election for process improvements and implementing and creating national best practices."
While Harris County Judge Lina Hidalgo didn't directly respond to Siegel, she said she wants to get to the bottom of what caused the Election Night debacle.
"I am eager to get a full accounting from the elections department, including any state, local and party-level issues," the county judge, a Democrat, said.