HOUSTON – Harris County Clerk Stan Stanart says he’s expecting a record turnout as early voting begins Monday for the two weeks prior to the Nov. 8 Election Day.
As the possibility of cheating continues to be a national topic, Stanart says voting fraud is rare but is a possibility, especially with the ballot by mail process.
”We do have many cases where we suspect voter fraud in our ballot by mail process but to get to where we can get an indictment is a whole different case,” he said. “You’ve got to actually find the exact person that’s doing it because it’s obvious there’s something going on, but to be able to prove it so we can get the conviction, that’s where the difficult part is.”
Stanart has heard Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump's claims that the election is rigged and that there is a chance for him to lose the election because of fraud. Stanart says while it is not perfect, the Harris County system will not be easily compromised and he sought to allay people's concerns that their votes will not be counted.
“For people to be skeptical is a good thing," he said. “In Harris County, I want to assure the voters of the integrity of our voting machines. We’re not connected to the internet. We have many layers of security in our whole process to secure the vote.”
Stanart says two people were indicted by a Harris County grand jury this year on election fraud charges stemming from the primary election. He says those indictments happened because people at the polling site observed what was happening and reported it.
“We’ve got to be on our toes," he said. "It’s good for people to question the systems so it keeps the election officials on their toes during the process.”
There will be many people voting. An expected 1.4 million voters with 750,000 of them coming during early voting, which prompted Stanart to advise voters to take advantage of the expanded hours early voting will be available and to avoid the final day when as many as 100,000 will be expected.
Election Day will also be very busy with as many as 700,000 expected to cast ballots on Nov. 8. Unlike the long lines and other problems that took place during the primary season when the political parties were responsible for telling the clerk’s office where and when the highest voter traffic was expected -- leading to miscalculations that caused huge logjams and hot tempers -- Stanart says the general election will be much different.
“It is full bore,” he said. “Everything we have will be ready to be used except for a very small number of reserve units in case something breaks or something. But we’re ready."
Stanart will be a guest on this week’s “Houston Newsmakers with Khambrel Marshall,” which airs at 10 a.m. Sunday right after "Meet the Press."