Hello, 2023!

It is official. Harris County Commissioners Court now has two Latinas and a Latino. Commissioner Lesley Briones took her oath of office yesterday. This is a big deal.

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Commentary is not a fan of elected officials saying they champion transparency and then they don’t let us know timely info. Commentary is talking about the long-awaited report by the Harris County Election Administrator on how the 2022 November election was conducted.  The 54-page “inconclusive” report was delivered to the Harris County Judge, County Commissioners, and members of the Elections Commission last Tuesday. The rest of the public didn’t learn about it until last Friday. The last Friday of the year. The Friday of New Year’s weekend. Very disappointing.

The report list ballot paper shortages, polling places not opening on time, not enough staff, and no tracking system that other large counties in Texas have. Get this. They don’t know if anyone was turned away because of ballot shortages. How do you not know if someone just turned around and headed back to their car without voting?

A number of GOP election judges refused to cooperate with the report.

You can read about the report in the Trib here: Harris County’s review of voting problems on Election Day “inconclusive” | The Texas Tribune.

Commentary has said it before. I support the creation of an Elections Administrator. The rollout of this office has been a mess.

I don’t blame Clifford Tatum, the Election Administrator. He was hired late into the process when a lot of the systems and procedures were in place. It is going to be up to him to clean this mess up.

We should expect much better.

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I got World Series gear for Christmas and our first spring training game is next month against the Mets.

Hey! It is 2023.

I had to fill out some paperwork for my Dad yesterday and I had to date it and I marked down, 2023.

Hello, 2023!