Our Visit With New Election Administrator Chris Davis

From the editor:  We approached Chris Davis about an interview back on December 13. He suggested waiting until mid-January, once he got his bearings in his new job.  We finally set it up for January 23 @ 10:00 in the Elections Office.

Chris Davis

Chris Davis' perfect world would include a $2,000,000 grant to provide new electronic voting machines for  Cameron County AND implementation of picture I.D. voter registration.

Davis describes his first two weeks on the job as our new election administrator a definite "learning curve," and, for continuity and "to at least get through this first May election," has retained all ten of Roger Ortiz' staff including Assistant Administrator Norma Carillo.  "I didn't want an office being trained at the same time I was being brought up to speed."

As for Roger Ortiz being brought back as a consultant, that has to do with finishing some reports on  last May's elections the State of Texas continues to request.  The reports must be completed before the Elections office can receive funding for that election.  Roger Ortiz left office the first of January without that work having been performed.  Now, Ortiz has been deputized by the county to finish the work he should have done last May and is being paid $5,000 for his trouble.

Davis is not a total stranger to election arithmetic.  As a Republican poll watcher/advocate in the 2010 John Wood/Carlos Cascos race,  Davis went over the tally sheets with a fine tooth comb and noticed a section that had not been transferred to the summary sheet.  That evidence was then submitted to the Democratic side, who observed the error.  Davis says he was credited by some with "finding uncounted ballots," but that was not the case.  It was simply a clerical error uncovered.

Davis says that election judges have nearly the power of district judges, at least over their sphere of control.  He feels education to be critical.  With respect to taking a pro-active stance toward the handling of elderly voters in nursing facililities, Davis has already encountered some resistance.  He asked to tag along with county officials helping with hurricane preparedness and give a brief presentation on the Election Code and found that several facilities "pushed back" from having him give a presentation.  When asked if the Brownsville high rise for the elderly could legally do that, he indicated he would find out.

As for expediting the vote returns, Davis wants all of the ballots from the northern reaches of the county to be combined at the Harlingen Annex before being delivered to the election office by a sheriff's deputy.  The warehouse containing ballots, machines and supplies he wants moved closer to the election office.  As for now, he alone has the key to that office.

So, while Davis is aware of all of the local concerns about mail-in vote mismanagement, voter impersonation, coercion of the elderly, etc. and he received us warmly and graciously,  he knows he will be measured by how smoothly and accurately things go this May.  One thing he says he will not respond to is intimidation by party officials.  He cited some favorite line of his father to the effect that "all they can do is shave your head and send you back to Viet Nam" as an indication that outside pressure would not sway him.