Election integrity activist Barry Wernick raised concerns about Dallas County Election Administrator Heider Garcia’s conduct, and Garcia hit back.

“UPDATE: COMPLAINT AMENDED TO INCLUDE VIOLATION OF TEXAS ELECTION CODE After discussions with @TexasEF, I am now convinced that Election Administrator Heider Garcia violated Election Code Sec. 276.017. As a result, I have filed and updated my complaint with the @TXsecofstate,” Wernick, a former Texas House of Representatives candidate, posted on X.

Along with his post, Wernick included a screenshot of the Election Code. In the image, he highlighted a portion that read, “or otherwise provides an early voting ballot by mail or other early voting by mail ballot materials to a person who the clerk or official knows did not submit an application for a ballot to be voted by mail under Section 84.001.”

The law specifies that violation of this section could be a Class A misdemeanor.

According to an entry on the Harris County website, “In Texas, Class A misdemeanors are punishable by up to one year in jail, a fine of up to $4,000, or both jail time and a fine.”

The Dallas Express previously reported that Garcia’s office removed voter ballots, replete with all official markings and signatures, from the county website.

DX reported that this issue arose when Wernick first discovered that this material was available online to anyone with a voter’s legal name and birthday. At the time, Wernick stated that he immediately filed a complaint with the Secretary of State’s office.

Wernick also raised concerns that a “person could illegally and potentially surreptitiously inject” the ballots into the voting system and dilute or disenfranchise voters.

Wernick sees the change to the website not as correcting a mistake but as admitting a misdeed.

“I contend that the removal of actual ballots and replacement with ‘sample’ ballots on the site is an admission of wrongdoing on the part of Election Administrator Heider Garcia,” Wernick posted on X.

Near the end of his thread, Wernick called the matter to the attention of Gov. Greg Abbott, Att. Gen. Ken Paxton and election integrity expert Ian Camacho.

Wernick then posted comments from another user about issues within the chain of custody system for absentee mail-in ballots in the postal service.

Garcia hit back, emailing DX that he rejects Wernick’s assertions and that his complaints are unfounded.

“Mail ballots are only sent out to registered voters who apply for one and meet specific criteria. Upon their return, mail ballots undergo a strict process of signature verification by a bipartisan board, a series of checks and balances and final count by another bipartisan board called the Central Count Station,” Garcia said, “A watermark on sample ballot is not a security measure, his own fellow conspiracy theorists [link in original] will tell you that.”

The link Garcia embedded and the attached image showed the same X post. It was a message from Mark Cook where he claimed he could easily remove the “sample” watermark. Cook then voiced concerns about “mail ballots” and endorsed in-person voting.

Garcia continued, “The only reason the watermark was added was to quash an absurd conspiracy theory that only hurts voter confidence and affects turnout. We don’t need to spend time arguing about useless watermarks, made up test failures or fan fiction tales about communist administrators trying to destroy America; what we need is to work towards building confidence.”

Wernick previously told DX he first became interested in this issue when he discovered a series of election irregularities, including missing seals on thousands of ballots and absent judge signatures, after his close primary race against Rep. Morgan Meyer (R-University Park), which was decided by around 500 votes.

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