Cindy Siegel - Harris County GOP Chair Joins Jimmy Barrett

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Six twenty one is their time here on Houston's Morning
News and in Harris County and all across the country,
there will be polls and poll workers and their jobs
will be to monitor what's going on and to make
sure things are going the way they're supposed to go.
But how confident are we? I guess it depends on
what your party affiliation is as far as your level

(00:21):
of confidence. Democrats evidently are more confident than Republicans are
in poll workers. Cindy Siegel joins us Harris County GOP chair.
Why do you think that is, Cindy, Well, I.

Speaker 2 (00:34):
Think we saw what happened two years ago when they
ran out of paper and when machines didn't work and
the polls didn't open up on time. But I will
say we worked truly hard last legislative session, got the
law changed and the county clerk is now running the
elections versus versus an election administrator, and she's doing a

(00:56):
much better job, has more experience in doing it. So
it's better. Is it perfect? Not yet? But we continue
to make sure that we've got trained, knowledgeable poll workers
at the polls.

Speaker 1 (01:11):
Well, I was going to say that wasn't it's not
really fair to blame the poll workers for what happened
in Harris County. Rights. It's the fish rots from the
head down. It was the elected administrator.

Speaker 2 (01:22):
Yes, two years ago, there was an election administrator, and
that's a bureaucrat that was hired by the County Commissioner's Court.
That's was the idea that Lena Hidalgo and Rodney Ellis
that they had, and we saw that it didn't work.
You know, we read out of paper, polls didn't open,

(01:43):
machines weren't taken care of. So there was legislation passed
last year that returned it to the elected official, which
is the county clerk.

Speaker 1 (01:52):
I think it worked exactly the way they wanted it
to work, don't you.

Speaker 2 (01:56):
Yeah. I think it was planned. I mean when you
looked at where what polls ran out of paper, you
could see that they were predominantly Republican polls. And I
will tell you too, Jimmy, we were calling the election
administrator from nine point thirty on saying we've got a
poll or polls that are running out of paper. I

(02:19):
actually went over to their office, you know, asking for
them to send paper. So you know, look at the
look at where the you know, which the polls ran
out of paper. I think it was pretty obvious.

Speaker 1 (02:33):
Yeah, clearly obvious to me anyway, Cindy, Uh, Let's let's
talk a little bit about poll watchers, because the poll
watchers are probably almost, if not as important as the
poll workers, don't you think. And that's where we need
to have more Republican volunteers who are willing to go
and to go to these polls and to monitor the
actions of the poll workers and make sure everything's on
the up and up.

Speaker 2 (02:54):
Yeah, there's three ways that you can actually help the
party and to ensure that we have fair elections. You
can be an election judge, or an election clerk, or
a poll watcher. And a poll watcher is someone who
stands there and takes notes and monitors what's going on.
They're all three really critical and you know, both parties

(03:18):
are represented with judges as well as clerks. And then
we can have the poll watchers and the candidates can
have pole watchers.

Speaker 1 (03:25):
So how much time is involved in that? I have
a stinking suspicion that there are probably people who want
to have fair elections, but they're afraid that it's just
going to take up too much of their time in
order to do something like this. What kind of training
do you need to go through to be a poll watcher?

Speaker 2 (03:39):
Well, let's talk about the election judges and clerks. You know,
the county does provide training in terms of what forms
the election law, the machines, how to set them up.
We at the party actually provide additional election law training
and then for poll watcher there is a course online

(04:00):
with the Secretary of State that you're required to complete. Additionally,
the Republican Party we require that our poll watchers actually
take additional supplemental training from us. But you know the
most important thing is that we have eyes and ears,
whether it's as an election judge, a clerk, or a

(04:20):
poll watcher.

Speaker 1 (04:21):
At the polls Okay, And if people would like to
volunteer for this, what should they do?

Speaker 2 (04:26):
Well, we asked that they go to our website, Harris
County gop under the elections tab, there's an election resource
tab and they can fill out a form and then
we have to submit their name to the County Commissioner's
Court for approval and from there we work with the
county to place people as either the judge or the

(04:48):
clerk or if they want to be a poll watcher
that they you know, then we place there's a form
that we assign them a poll to watch three critical positions,
and you know, I think it's a good way to
serve your party and your country to ensure elections are fair.

Speaker 1 (05:09):
I would agree, Cindy Siegel, thanks for coming on. Appreciate it.
Harri's kind of GOP chair. Cindy Siegel, it's six