After less than two years in the role, Dallas County Elections Administrator Heider Garcia is resigning to take a job in the private sector, he confirmed Friday to The Dallas Morning News.<\/p>\n
His last day will be Aug. 29, according to his resignation letter first reported by the news outlet VoteBeat Texas.<\/p>\n
The move comes in the middle of Garcia\u2019s preparations for the statewide constitutional amendment election on Nov. 4. Garcia stressed that his decision was prompted by a new elections-related career opportunity, although he declined to disclose details of the role.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think it\u2019s been a great run,\u201d Garcia said in an interview. \u201cI\u2019m proud of everything I\u2019ve done. I\u2019m proud of the team and what they\u2019ve done for voters in Dallas. Sometimes in life you have to take your shot when it\u2019s there for you to take, and this is my time.\u201d<\/p>\n
Breaking News<\/p>\n
The five-member Dallas County Elections Commission, which meets on an as-needed basis, is responsible for hiring the elections administrator. <\/p>\n
In a statement to The News, County Judge Clay Lewis Jenkins, a member of the elections commission, said the panel \u201cwill conduct a thorough and expeditious search for a new elections administrator.\u201d<\/p>\n
Jenkins said if a replacement is not appointed before Garcia\u2019s last day, Deputy Elections Administrator Malissa Kouba will oversee day-to-day operations.<\/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. \u201cWe appreciate his dedication and demonstrated leadership of this essential department. I wish him the best in his next chapter.\u201d<\/p>\n
Garcia came to Dallas County in 2023 after serving as Tarrant County\u2019s elections administrator for about five years, when he faced tremendous personal pressure while fielding death threats, misinformation and unfounded claims of voter fraud.<\/p>\n
Garcia earned respect in the field and served as a senior subject matter expert for the U.S. Election Assistance Commission.<\/p>\n
In Dallas County he oversaw a crisis during early voting for the Nov. 4 general election, when electronic pollbooks from Election Systems & Software failed, resulting in nearly 4,000 voters casting ballots tied to precincts where they did not live.<\/p>\n
He helped secure a new vendor and devices in time for the May 3 municipal elections. <\/p>\n
In his resignation letter addressed to Jenkins and County Administrator Darryl Martin, Garcia praised the ability of his team to carry forward.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhile the job was not always easy, it certainly was rewarding,\u201d Garcia wrote.<\/p>\n
\u201cDallas County Elections has a great team of professionals, one that has nothing to envy from any other county anywhere in the country,\u201d he said. \u201cI move on happy to leave the Dallas County Elections Department in better shape than when I arrived.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"After less than two years in the role, Dallas County Elections Administrator Heider Garcia is resigning to take…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":131620,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5135],"tags":[5229,1596,7290,8988,90,80,358,3187,67,586,132,5230,68,2969],"class_list":{"0":"post-131619","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-dallas-county","11":"tag-election","12":"tag-elections","13":"tag-politics","14":"tag-texas","15":"tag-tx","16":"tag-united-states","17":"tag-united-states-of-america","18":"tag-unitedstates","19":"tag-unitedstatesofamerica","20":"tag-us","21":"tag-usa"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/114998646084135256","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/131619","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=131619"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/131619\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/131620"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=131619"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=131619"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=131619"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}