Hidalgo on search for new Harris County elections head: 'Grateful to every member of the Elections Commission for working through this together'

Harris County has commenced a nationwide search for a new elections administrator, according to Harris County Judge Lina Hidalgo's official Twitter account.

"We unanimously launched the national search today for a new Elections Administrator, and worked on various other steps to ensure we find the best person we can for the job," Hidalgo tweeted. "Grateful to every member of the Elections Commission for working through this together." 

The county is looking to find a successor to Isabel Longoria, who announced her resignation after her office drew scrutiny and ire for its handling of the ballot counts in March's Texas primary elections.

Houston CBS affiliate KHOU reported that the Harris County Elections Commission voted unanimously to accept Longoria's resignation, which is effective July 1.

According to the station, the bipartisan commission also unanimously approved items related to the hiring process. 

Hidalgo, a Democrat, hopes Longoria's replacement will assume the post by the end of June, KHOU reported.

The station reported that Harris County Republican Chair Cindy Siegel had motions calling for Longoria's resignation to go into effect immediately or earlier than July 1.

Siegel had led the charge for the county to remove Longoria in response to a delay Longoria's office experienced with its primary vote count.

The county completed its count hours after the state's 24-hour deadline expired, but it was revealed a few days later that 10,000 ballots were left out of the final figure.

Initially skeptical of the existence of problems with her office, Longoria ultimately took responsibility.

"I didn't meet my own standards, nor the standards set by commissioners court," she said at the Harris County Commissioners Court's March 8 meeting, according to Houston ABC affiliate KTRK, the Houston Daily reported.