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January 20, 2025 0 Comments

Collin County appoints a new elections administrator

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The Collin County Board of Elections appointed Kaleb Breaux as the new county elections administrator. In that role, he will take charge of a department praised for its efficiency but also plagued by allegations of election fraud.

Breaux served as deputy elections administrator under Bruce Sherbet, who retired late last year.

The Board of Elections heard from several Collin County elections officials who urged them to appoint Breaux during public comment before the board interviewed candidates for the position. KC McClain, a Collin County election judge, said Breaux is well equipped to maintain Sherbet's legacy.

“He would continue the established standards and serve us well,” McClain said.

Collin County has received high praise for its election systems. The Office County of the Texas Secretary of State “the model for conducting elections in Texas.” his audit of the 2020 general election.

Accusations of election fraud over the 2020 election have been repeatedly discredited. But members of the Collin County chapter of Citizens Defending Freedom, many of whom are also active in the local Republican Party, have spoken about election integrity concerns at Collin County commissioners meetings. for years. Many have urged the county to transition from voting machines to hand-marked and hand-counted paper ballots.

Judge Chris Hill suggested using hand-marked and machine-counted ballots for the November election last summer. But his proposal was not adopted after the other commissioners expressed concerns about the time and costs the transition would take. County staff estimated it would cost the county between $3.3 million and $4.2 million and would take at least a year to implement. The commissioners directed staff to explore the use of paper ballots in the future, including a possible bond election to let voters decide the issue.

Concerns about election integrity have also led to an increase in the number of elections challenges to voter registration. A small number of Collin County residents who volunteered with a conservative nonprofit called True the Vote filed thousands of voter registration challenges in the run-up to the November election. True the Vote is a conservative nonprofit organization based in Houston that has promoted what many describe as unfounded theories about election fraud.

In Texas, registered voters can challenges voter registrations in the same county. And they use online tools that compare voter rolls with other public records to tackle thousands of challenges at once. Breaux told KERA in a previous interview that Collin County received about 13,000 challenges before the November election.

Breaux said the county elections department is just as concerned about maintaining election security and integrity as the people challenging voter registration.

“I think deep down we're all concerned that things are done right,” he said.

Do you have a tip? Email Caroline Love at clove@kera.org.

Caroline Love is one Report for America corps member for KERA News.

KERA News is made possible by the generosity of our members. If you find this reporting valuable, please consider it making a tax-deductible donation Today. Thank you.



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