Tarrant County Republican leaders form unit to target voter fraud, though instances are rare

Tarrant County has received no complaints of voter fruad since the 2020 presidential election yet Republican leaders announced Wednesday they are forming an election fraud unit in the districty attorney and sheriff’s offices.

County judge Tim O’Hare, district attorney Phil Sorrells and Sheriff Bill Waybourn outlined their plans during a news conference at the sheriff’s office.

The creation of the task force comes after campaign promises to keep an eye on elections in Tarrant County. Sorrells promised to create the unit on the campaign trail, and O’Hare discussed the idea of creating an elections officer position that would report to him, the sheriff and another commissioner.

The person in that position would have been assigned to look into instances of voter fraud in Tarrant County, as well as examine best elections practices. It appears that plan has been abandoned.

“I think this is even better,” O’Hare told the Star-Telegram.

No Democratic elected officials were involved in the unit’s creation. Neither was Tarrant County elections administrator Heider Garcia.

Tarrant County was one of four Texas counties to participate in an election audit by the Secretary of State’s Office at the request of former President Donald Trump. Tarrant’s audit came back with few issues.

A 2021 law made significant changes to the way elections are run in Texas. The law expanded voting hours but prohbited drive-through and 24-hour voting. It also offered protections for partisan poll watchers and required information on mail ballot applications to match the voter’s registration application. Also, counties with populations over 100,000 must livestream the counting rooms.

The leaders did not fault the county’s elections administrations office. O’Hare said there are four election fraud cases from 2018 pending in the DA’s office.

But the creation of this unit isn’t just about voter fraud, O’Hare told reporters. The unit will look into issues facing poll workers, including threats and harassment.

The task force will be made up of investigators and deputies within the sheriff’s department and DA’s office, O’Hare said. Investigators will look into complaints of voter fraud on top of their case loads but will not receive compensation for the extra duties. Investigators will be trained in election and government code. A dedicated phone number and email address will be established for tips.

The new unit isn’t supposed to impact Tarrant County’s budget, O’Hare said.

“It goes back to that good government,” O’Hare said.

O’Hare told reporters the media often asks is if there’s widespread voter fraud. He compared it to bank robberies and kidnappings.

“Is it OK to have one bank robbery or two?” O’Hare said. “Is it OK to have one kidnapping or two or three? So there shouldn’t be any voter fraud, and this will help go a long way toward deterring it.”

Waybourn said this unit will work just like any other unit in the county that takes evidence and prosecutes.

When asked what the task force will do that the elections office isn’t already doing, Waybourn told the Star-Telegram it would take information in from anybody in the public.

Waybourn told reporters that neither he, nor Sorrells nor O’Hare were concerned about fraud in their own elections — Waybourn won his election in 2020, and both Sorrells and O’Hare reigned victorious in November 2022.

“We want to either prove that there are faults in our election, or prove that there aren’t,” Waybourn said.

As election workers across the county face scrutiny and threats following the 2020 election — including Tarrant County’s Garcia — O’Hare said he believes the new task force will help ease the pressure on election workers.

Efforts to enhance the public’s confidence in elections have been ongoing in Tarrant County. This past midterm cycle, Garcia invited residents into the county’s elections office to participate in a mock election while poll workers tested voting machines.

Those with concerns about Tarrant County elections are encouraged to call 817-884-1213 to submit tips. The county has yet to set up the email address for the unit, a sheriff’s department spokesperson said.