Texas Secretary of State (SOS) Jane Nelson recently shook up her agency by replacing the long-time director of elections, Keith Ingram.
Ingram had been the chief of the state’s election division, housed within the SOS’s agency since Governor Rick Perry was in office over ten years ago.
Before serving in this capacity, Ingram was a manager in Perry’s appointment office and a private practice attorney.
Surprisingly, Ingram was replaced with Christina Adkins, who has been with the agency since 2012 and was most recently working as a director within the elections division.
The SOS posted a brief announcement about the change on its website.
“Adkins has served in the Elections Division since 2012 and is a recognized leader in the election community for her legal and technological expertise in certifying voting systems and ensuring county officials are trained to comply with the Texas Election Code,” the statement read.
Adkins, also an attorney, graduated from Southern Methodist University’s Dedman School of Law and worked in numerous state agencies prior to her current stint at SOS.
Aaron Harris, who formerly served as the Executive Director of Direct Action Texas, the first organization to bring to light provable mail-in ballot harvesting operations in Texas in 2016, spoke to The Dallas Express about the elevation of Adkins to this critical position.
“As someone who has worked extensively in election integrity, both legislation and boots on the ground, I cannot think of a worse person to head up Texas’ election division at the SOS,” Harris said of Adkins.
“Throughout my years of working elections, Christina Adkins has been a constant deterrent to integrity, enabling sloppy and inaccurate election results across the state,” he continued.
Before the change was announced, Ingram had testified before the Elections Committee of the Texas House of Representatives and made comments regarding the recent general election in Harris County that raised eyebrows from many Republicans.
In a November 14 letter to the Attorney General and Harris County District Attorney’s offices, then-Secretary of State John Scott requested assistance in investigating potential criminal offenses that occurred during their administration of the November 2022 election.
Scott claimed that numerous Harris County voting locations “ran out of ballots and had to turn voters away,” while others had to source ballots from other locations or simply utilize blank ballots from roving elections personnel.
Furthermore, Scott alleged “certain locations” were supplied fewer voting machines than previously, and in “multiple instances” the machines failed.
Commenting before the Elections Committee, Ingram stated that while Harris County “had its challenges … it was one of the best elections we’ve seen out of Harris County since Stan Stanart was clerk.”
Stanart was the last Republican to serve as the county clerk, which oversees elections locally.
Houston-area state Representative Valoree Swanson (R-Spring) remarked, “I don’t know anyone in Harris County who would agree with you. We think it was an absolute disaster, and it’s not just a ‘Oops, we had a logistical problem,’ when great numbers of polling places were not given enough paper.”
Ingram clarified his position, saying that his remarks are relative to the performance of Harris County in recent years.
“That is, again, a very low bar,” Ingram replied.
The next day, Nelson announced that Ingram was being reassigned to a “newly-created position to develop and manage an interstate voter registration crosscheck program” while Adkins was receiving the bump to elections chief.
“I cannot think of one time where Adkins issued an opinion, either formally or conversationally, where her advice was to err on the side of the integrity of the election,” Harris recalled. “Texans who value election integrity do not have an ally in Christina Adkins.”
Others have echoed Harris’ concerns.
Dr. Walter Daugherity, a senior lecturer emeritus in the department of computer science at Texas A&M University, said Adkins denied him a copy of Brazos County’s cast-vote record based on an antiquated Texas open records law.
Daugherity requested 2020 election results through an open records request in January 2022. He received it in August when Attorney General Ken Paxton rescinded the rule.
“She worked in the Secretary of State’s office for a long time,” Daugherity told The Dallas Express. “So she has that experience.”
“However, here in Brazos County, I requested the cast-vote records from 2020,” Daugherity continued. “The local elections administration at first claimed they did not have it, that it did not exist. I showed them the page in the manual on how to produce it. Then they came back and said they could not release it as a public records request because Christina Adkins said they could not.”
Now, Adkins takes over for the state as scrutiny of the elections process is top of mind for Republican lawmakers. Last session, they passed a number of reforms to streamline the process and make it more uniform across Texas’ 254 counties.
One of Lt. Governor Dan Patrick’s top legislative priorities this session is to reclassify illegal voting as a felony. The legislature downgraded this offense to a misdemeanor in 2021.
Harris remarked that Adkins would likely be of no assistance in prosecuting illegal voting or other forms of election fraud.
“In various criminal cases I have been involved in with the Attorney General and other law enforcement agencies, a repeated complaint is the lack of cooperation from Christina Adkins,” Harris alleged.
“When the Attorney General attempted to work with the SOS to perform a statewide voter roll audit, Adkins was a constant source of pushback,” said Harris.
“It was clearly torpedoed by an insider and Adkins is at the top of the list of suspects. That was a significant blow to the integrity of Texas’ elections.”
Others, however, were more optimistic.
Trudy Hancock, elections administrator for Brazos County and president of the Texas Association of Election Administrators, told The Dallas Express:
“She is perfect for this job. I am president of the Texas Association of Election Administrators. She works very closely with us. She was very instrumental in starting an advisory panel, choosing counties of different sizes. We speak at least once a week with the legislature in session. It’s usually once a month on election issues when not. She is there to give us advice on handling things the best we can for the state of Texas.”
Joyce LeBombard, president of the League of Women Voters of Texas, similarly told The Dallas Express that she is confident Adkins “will do a good job” in the role to which Nelson has elevated her.
The Dallas Express reached out to numerous state officials to weigh in on Nelson’s choice to replace Ingram, but all have declined to comment.
