{"id":130085,"date":"2025-08-08T21:47:09","date_gmt":"2025-08-08T21:47:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/130085\/"},"modified":"2025-08-08T21:47:09","modified_gmt":"2025-08-08T21:47:09","slug":"heider-garcia-resigns-as-dallas-county-texas-election-chief","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/130085\/","title":{"rendered":"Heider Garcia resigns as Dallas County, Texas, election chief"},"content":{"rendered":"

Votebeat is a nonprofit news organization reporting on voting access and election administration across the U.S. Sign up for Votebeat Texas\u2019 free newsletter here.<\/a><\/p>\n

Heider Garcia, Dallas County elections administrator, said Thursday that he will resign and plans to work in the private sector, according to his letter of resignation<\/a>. <\/p>\n

His last day with the county will be Aug. 29. Garcia\u2019s resignation comes only months before a statewide constitutional-amendment election and the 2026 primary election. Planning for both elections is already underway. <\/p>\n

The Dallas County Elections Commission \u2014 made up of a bipartisan group of county leaders \u2014 will choose the next elections administrator. If a new administrator is not appointed before Garcia\u2019s last day, his deputy, Malissa Kouba, will carry out the duties until one is chosen, County Judge Clay Lewis Jenkins\u2019 office said in a statement to Votebeat.<\/p>\n

Garcia did not respond to a request for comment Friday. <\/p>\n

In his resignation letter, Garcia thanked Jenkins for his support and encouragement.<\/p>\n

\u201cYour confidence in my leadership and the resources you provided allowed me to effectively deliver results,\u201d he wrote. \u201cI am grateful for our candid discussions, the valuable advice you always offered, and your commitment to prioritizing voters.\u201d <\/p>\n

How Texas safeguards elections \u2014 and what still poses a threat<\/p>\n

Get the latest reporting on voting technology, misinformation, the push for hand-counting ballots, and more in Votebeat Texas’ free newsletter, delivered twice a month.<\/p>\n

Garcia was appointed elections administrator in Dallas County in the fall of 2023 after leading elections in Tarrant County since 2018. Garcia resigned from the role in Tarrant, citing political pressure<\/a> from Republican County Judge Tim O\u2019Hare. Garcia also worked for the U.S. Election Assistance Commission, where he helped develop best practices for election officials across the country as an expert on election administration and election technology. <\/p>\n

Garcia became one of the most respected elections directors in the state and was lauded by other election officials across the country for the way he dealt with misinformation and mistrust of elections during his time in Tarrant<\/a>. <\/p>\n

Garcia, who previously worked as a software engineer for the voting machine company Smartmatic, had also become the target of claims from some activists and allies of President Trump that he\u2019d \u201crigged\u201d the 2020 election in Tarrant County. He faced harassment and racist death threats. His efforts to engage with the activists and implement policies to increase transparency were later replicated by election officials around the state.<\/p>\n

\u201cHeider Garcia came to Dallas County with a proven track record of running excellent elections and he lived up to that reputation during his time here,\u201d Jenkins said in the statement. \u201cWe appreciate his dedication and demonstrated leadership of this essential department.\u201d <\/p>\n

The Dallas County Election Commission is made up of Jenkins, a Democrat; the chairs of both county political parties, Republican Allen West and Democrat Kardal Coleman; the county\u2019s tax assessor; and the county clerk.<\/p>\n

Natalia Contreras is a reporter for Votebeat in partnership with the Texas Tribune. Contact Natalia at ncontreras@votebeat.org<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Votebeat is a nonprofit news organization reporting on voting access and election administration across the U.S. Sign up…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":130086,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5135],"tags":[5229,1596,79261,358,36329,79260,3187,67,586,132,5230,68,2969,79259],"class_list":{"0":"post-130085","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-dallas","8":"tag-america","9":"tag-dallas","10":"tag-tarrant-county-elections-administrator-heider-garcia","11":"tag-texas","12":"tag-texas-tribune","13":"tag-tt","14":"tag-tx","15":"tag-united-states","16":"tag-united-states-of-america","17":"tag-unitedstates","18":"tag-unitedstatesofamerica","19":"tag-us","20":"tag-usa","21":"tag-votebeat"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/114995347173020732","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/130085","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=130085"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/130085\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/130086"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=130085"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=130085"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=130085"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}