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This coverage is made possible through Votebeat, a nonpartisan news organization covering local election administration and voting access. The article is available for reprint under the terms of Votebeat’s republishing policy.
Over the past two months, the task of managing elections in Kerr County has been passed between three individuals. Initially, two officials abandoned their responsibility after a Republican county official persistently advocated for the elimination of electronic voting equipment in favor of manual ballot counting. This endeavor has created a rift within the predominantly Republican county, which is located in the picturesque Hill Country and is bisected by the Guadalupe River. As a result, taxpayers will incur expenses of approximately $250,000 due to the frequent turnovers.
Despite its failure so far, Paul Zohlen, the Chair of the Kerr County Republican Party, informed Votebeat that the endeavor, primarily spearheaded by Republican County Commissioner Rich Paces, has inflicted significant damage on one of the most esteemed election departments in the state.
Zohlen expressed astonishment, stating, “Never before has such an occurrence taken place.” He further explained that the county clerk would now have the responsibility of assembling a team and providing them with the necessary 10 to 15 years of expertise by March 2024.
Elections in Kerr County, which is home to Kerrville and has a population of over 50,000 people, were previously overseen by the tax assessor’s office until late August. Bob Reeves, a Republican who was elected to this position in 2018, stated to Votebeat that he declined to carry on with this responsibility due to the increasing lack of confidence in the electoral process. This situation has made an already demanding, challenging, and poorly compensated job nearly unmanageable.
Reeves expressed feeling trapped in a challenging situation, saying, “I found myself caught between a metaphorical rock and a hard place.” He explained that the recent insistence on manual vote counting due to unfounded doubts regarding the current system’s security had made the task appear futile.
As a result, Jackie Dowdy, the county clerk, was entrusted with the responsibilities. However, she also declined and chose to step down from her position completely. In the meantime, Ian Collum, her chief deputy, was designated as the interim clerk while the county initiates the process of finding a suitable replacement. Despite the fact that the department has not dealt with elections for over ten years, he and his colleagues will now be responsible for assisting Kerr County’s 40,000 registered voters in casting their ballots in 2024.
Fueled by misinformation and baseless claims that electronic voting equipment is manipulated to change election results, the push to hand count ballots in Kerr County is similar to other efforts happening across Texas and elsewhere. Communities that have recently embraced hand counting of ballots — a method that election administration experts have said and studies have shown is less accurate, more costly, and less secure — have become hotly divided. In some cases, such as Cochise County, Arizona, it has pushed election officials out of their jobs and fractured trust in local elections.
Votebeat was informed by experts that the restoration of trust in elections, as well as undoing the chaos caused by the hand count effort in Kerr and other places, could potentially take several years.
“Communities are devoting an astonishing amount of time to resolve a non-existent issue, consequently giving rise to a plethora of genuine problems,” remarked Justin Grimmer, a professor in the political science department and a senior fellow at Stanford University’s Hoover Institution. Grimmer is presently engaged in research on the manual counting of ballots in various counties nationwide.
Only a few counties in Texas, each with less than 10,000 residents, choose to manually count their election results. In Glasscock County, located in West Texas and with less than 800 registered voters, investing in costly equipment for a task that can be efficiently done by hand seemed unnecessary. These counties, with their limited population and concise ballots, are able to promptly finish and submit vote totals within 24 hours after the Election Day polls close.
At present, the endeavor to manually count ballots in Kerr County has come to a halt. Despite the unsuccessful vote to modify the county’s counting procedure for 2024, both Paces and county election officials are convinced that this battle is far from concluded.
Paces informed Votebeat that this was merely the initial encounter.
Officials reach a breaking point
Bob Reeves’ small office is located behind a counter where clerks assist residents with updating their vehicle registration, property taxes, paperwork for licenses, and voter registration. The surface of his desk is barely visible due to the numerous stacks of paperwork covering it. Additionally, the bookcase behind him contains even more stacks, symbolizing the heavy workload Reeves faces as the county’s tax assessor and election official. He is constantly juggling multiple state-mandated deadlines that must be met to fulfill both roles.
According to Reeves, he and his team were aware of certain individuals in the community who had doubts or a lack of trust in the elections process. However, they consistently made efforts to assist people in comprehending it to the best of their capabilities.
However, the task of defending the process and his job became significantly more challenging when the skepticism originated from someone of Paces’ stature, a man occupying a seat at the commissioners’ court dais.
Over the span of eight months, Reeves consistently found himself needing to divert his attention from piles of motor vehicle registration, property tax, and elections documents. His main objective was to prepare for the upcoming commissioners court meeting, where the reliability and accuracy of the voting equipment he utilized would be questioned, often without any consideration for factual evidence.
Reeves expressed concern to Votebeat about the potential legal consequences associated with hand counting. He feared that if the county faced a lawsuit regarding future election results or if the accuracy of hand counting was questioned in court, he would lack the ability to defend this practice. Additionally, Reeves lacked confidence in the feasibility of completing hand counting within the legally mandated timeframe of 24 hours after polls close. Furthermore, he found it challenging to justify the conflicting opinions among commissioners regarding the reliability of electronic vote-counting machines, despite his personal confidence in them.
Reeves informed Votebeat that his ability to perform his job effectively relied heavily on the unanimous support he received. He resigned from his election duties in August. According to the law, in the absence of an established elections department and an appointed elections administrator, the county clerk assumes the role of the county elections officer. However, the Texas Election Code permits the county commissioners to transfer the responsibilities of election administration from the clerk to the tax-assessor collector, provided that both departments concur. Kerr County opted for this arrangement in 2008.
Despite multiple requests for comment from Votebeat, Jackie Dowdy, the county clerk who resigned in September, remained silent regarding the reason for her resignation. However, during a public meeting held two weeks after Reeves announced his intention to step down, Dowdy expressed her frustration about the sudden alteration in her department and revealed that Reeves had never contacted her regarding his decision.
According to the election transition plan, Reeve’s office will retain responsibility for voter registration tasks, and only one member of Reeves’ staff will transfer to Dowdy’s former department. Dowdy expressed concern to the commissioners, stating that having just one experienced individual is insufficient, and requested three additional staff members. Dowdy also highlighted the impact this would have on the entire staff, emphasizing the need for additional resources such as space, desks, and desktop computers, which would incur additional expenses.
Kerr County taxpayers will bear the estimated cost of around $250,000, as budgeted by the commissioners for such expenses.
How the hand-count movement came to Kerr County
Paces ran for his seat on the Kerr County Commissioners Court last year with a campaign focused on frugal spending and election integrity. An Ohio native and retired engineer, Paces and his wife moved to the Texas Hill Country in the early 2000s.
After being on the job for less than a month, he began to receive text messages from local right-wing activist Alicia Bell, who said she was at the Capitol for an “election integrity legislative briefing.” The event featured Bob Hall, a Dallas-area senator who has for years pushed to eliminate electronic voting equipment; Texas GOP Vice Chair Dana Myers, who led efforts to remove Texas from an effective voter list maintenance tool; and Russ Ramsland, a Texas businessman who is widely known to spread false election conspiracies.
“Can you put voting on the agenda?” Bell asked Paces via text message, according to records obtained by the news outlet the Kerr County Lead and shared with Votebeat. “The whole presentation was jaw dropping.” Bell has been a thorn in the side of Kerr County government since she moved to the area from California. She’s a frequent speaker at commissioners court meetings who has denied that the COVID-19 pandemic is real and is against vaccine mandates.
In 2021, Kerr County Judge Rob Kelly, who chose not to respond to Votebeat’s inquiries regarding this matter, conveyed to Bell that their purpose is to govern the local community rather than heed internet or Fox News opinions. Kelly addressed Bell’s assertion that doctors were intentionally exaggerating COVID-19 positive cases to instill fear, stating, “I acknowledge that you are new to Texas from California and may not be familiar with the workings of our local government. However, it is important to recognize that we are obligated to adhere to and comply with the law.”
In February, just under a month after sending Paces the text message, Bell included the subject of elections on the commissioners court agenda. He suggested organizing an election integrity workshop, aiming to provide an opportunity for the public and fellow county commissioners to directly hear from “experts.”
The workshop, which was hosted by the commissioners, took place in March at the county commissioners court. Reeves was present to explain the relevant laws and procedures, while a representative from Hart Intercivic, a Texas-based election machine vendor, discussed the security features that protect voting machines from tampering. Additionally, Paces invited Mark Cook, an election conspiracy theorist and self-proclaimed IT expert from Colorado, who has been unsuccessful in convincing Texas counties to replace their voting equipment. He has traveled to various counties, including Uvalde, Nueces, Bexar, Fort Bend, Montgomery, Denton, and Gillespie, but county leaders and election officials have rejected his proposals.
Days after the event, Paces traveled to Waco for former president Donald Trump’s first 2024 presidential campaign rally.
Reeves, in the meantime, made efforts to demonstrate to Paces and the other commissioners that hand-counting the ballots of over 38,000 registered voters in the county would be impractical. Collaborating with county employees, Reeves conducted a test to determine the time required for counting 100 ballots from Kerr County’s Republican primary in March 2020. “Using a fresh approach, it took us an hour to count 32 ballots,” Reeves shared.
Reeves also cautioned that the county faces challenges in recruiting sufficient election workers and securing suitable facilities for the 20 polling locations used in every election. To switch to manual vote counting, the county would probably have to increase the number of poll workers, allocate additional funds for their payment, and acquire larger spaces to accommodate the hand counting process according to the ballot volume. Reeves emphasized that this would entail engaging over 200 individuals continuously.
Reeves and others presented evidence to Paces, but none of it was able to alter his perspective.
Right-wing celebrities draw a crowd
The records shared with Votebeat show that activists from local far-right political action committee We The People and other voter fraud activists from neighboring counties have helped drive this momentum. He also had the help of national names in the “election integrity” movement, such as Seth Keshel, that has grown out of the lies about the outcome of the 2020 election.
Paces organized an Election Integrity Town Hall in August, which drew around 300 attendees. The expo hall at the fairgrounds in Kerrville was packed with participants, and the event continued for nearly six hours.
Many were there to see Tina Peters, the former Mesa County Colorado clerk who was indicted last year on felony and misdemeanor charges related to election equipment tampering after she allowed unauthorized people break into her county’s election system in hopes of finding evidence of fraud. As she walked in, Peters received a standing ovation from the crowd of mostly senior citizens. The crowd fell silent when she took the stage, listening as she explained why the voting machines and government officials — including those who arrested her — could not be trusted. She also denied any wrongdoing on her part related to criminal charges against her, and provided no evidence that Kerr County’s elections were flawed.
Peters asserted, “Amongst these individuals are Democrats and Republicans, Marxists and globalists, all eager to seize control of your nation.” She then proceeded to highlight her website, live streamed video show, and an upcoming documentary, emphasizing her concerns. “They manipulate the system, ensuring their preferred candidates assume positions of power. It’s not a fair election; it’s a carefully orchestrated selection process.”
Other speakers included Keshel, Hall, and Cook, who is connected to self-proclaimed “election integrity” groups across the country, and to clerks who have tried to illegally obtain access to voting systems. He described hand counting as a type of salvation for towns seeking to boost election confidence.
Cook addressed the crowd, claiming that government and election officials employ electronic voting machines to count votes because they believe that “we, the citizens, the ordinary people, lack the intelligence to tally our own votes.” Cook confidently declared that this perception is now outdated. The crowd responded with enthusiastic applause, while a few onlookers even exclaimed “Amen!”
According to records, Paces organized and covered the travel arrangements for Peters and Cook, who both stayed as guests at his residence located in the eastern part of the county. Additionally, Paces personally handled the expenses incurred during their stay.
He made a formal proposal in September, suggesting that the county should conduct a hand count of the ballots for the upcoming November general election.
The motion did not progress as no other Republican commissioners were willing to second it. However, the failure of the vote does not reflect a lack of enthusiasm in the county. The meeting room was completely filled, with more people waiting outside, eager to share their views on the matter.
Most of those who showed up to speak were Republicans — 75% of the county voted for former President Donald Trump in 2020. They were divided by the prospect of hand counting ballots.
During a recent event, Bill Ragsdale, a justice of the peace from Kerr County, emphasized the significant slowdown that hand counting can cause, potentially affecting the entire state of Texas. Drawing from his personal experience in the 80s, he recalled an election scenario where Kerr County’s hand-counting process resulted in a three-day delay for the entire state. Ragsdale mentioned that the counters worked tirelessly day and night to tally all the votes, but he admitted uncertainty regarding the accuracy of the final count. Ultimately, everyone involved was eager for the process to conclude.
Many proponents of hand counting remained unconcerned about the cost and time implications, as they believed that these objections held little weight. Roger Hall, a resident of Ingram, expressed his support for hand counting and his lack of trust in voting machines, emphasizing the urgent need to address the prevailing lack of confidence in the current system. Hall stated that many individuals present at the gathering shared similar sentiments.
Paces has additionally brought this show on tour.
In Medina County, a small county located two hours south of Kerr County, he and Cook decided to address the public just days after their August event in Kerr. Their purpose was to encourage others to also consider adopting hand counting methods. Paces, who lacks prior experience in election work, took charge of a team and showcased the process of hand counting. Seated around a table, four individuals retrieved ballots from cardboard bankers boxes and began the task of tallying them.
Paces urged the attendees of the demonstration to come closer and gather around the table to witness the process firsthand. “You will witness complete transparency,” he assured the crowd, emphasizing that the counting would be efficiently conducted.
He stated that his strategy involves having individuals arrive at 2 PM to commence the ballot counting process. The task is expected to take approximately five hours, ensuring completion before the polls close. The key lies in recruiting a sufficient number of people.
Paces’ next move remains uncertain, but he assured Votebeat that he is determined to implement this change, regardless of any negative impact it may have on the county. He dismisses the notion that hand counting would be more expensive and time-consuming with less reliable results, despite lacking any evidence to support his claim. He claims to have successfully recruited hundreds of volunteers in Kerr who are willing to participate in the hand counting process.
Paces expressed that an increasing number of individuals are reaching out to him, apologizing for the unsuccessful attempt and offering to manually count the votes. He added that more people are expected to join this movement, which he sees as a display of civic pride, and he finds it highly commendable.
Natalia Contreras covers election administration and voting access for Votebeat in partnership with The Texas Tribune. Contact Natalia at [email protected]
