Montgomery County commissioners March 5 approved updates tied to the May 2 election, but the discussion quickly widened into election day operations regarding staffing shortages and how the county runs polling sites.
What happened
Precinct 3 Commissioner Ritch Wheeler asked the court to remove the Kevin Brady Community Center as an early voting location in exchange of adding the George and Cynthia Woods Mitchell Library as part of the May 2 joint election preparations.
Wheeler said because of last-minute location changes during the March 3 primaries, voters were left searching for the right polling site.
“I had 500 people … that showed up on election day at the wrong location because we had to change it on the Friday before,” he said.
Diving deeper
He said that staffing—not equipment—may be the biggest strain on local elections heading into May 2, with officials saying the county is struggling to fill the poll worker roles needed to keep dozens of sites operating smoothly.
Officials said it has become increasingly difficult to recruit enough election workers—especially for May elections, which typically draw lighter turnout and fewer volunteers.
“It’s not that easy to fill judges’ clerk positions in 121 precincts, especially in the May election,” County Elections Administrator Suzie Harvey said.
Wheeler said the county’s staffing shortfall is also shaping how it uses its elections contractor. He said the county pays the vendor for administrative support, but still has to find workers on its own.
“We paid them about a million dollars last year, and we’re on track to pay them—probably by the time we do this joint election, and then we do the runoff election—it’ll be about $2.5 million dollars this year … and they don’t provide staffing for us,” Wheeler said. “They don’t help us with the reason why we’re consolidating because we don’t have enough people. We don’t use them to get us people. We only use them for HR and payroll.”
What’s next
County Judge Mark Keough said the court plans to return to the topic and take a closer look at how the county recruits and assigns election workers.
Precinct 4 Commissioner Matt Gray pushed for a timeline and asked elections staff to come back with options.
For now, commissioners approved the order to consolidate county election precincts for the May 2 election, setting up a follow-up discussion on what changes, if any, could be in place before voters head back to the polls.
View the consolidated county election precincts for the May 2 special election below.