Humble city officials hosted testing for new election equipment on April 16 following a notice from Harris County requesting cities to be responsible for their own elections on May 4.
What you need to know
The need for new election equipment for the city follows the passage of Senate Bill 1750 in the 2023 Texas legislative session, which required all Harris County election duties to be transferred from the elections administrator to the county clerk's office. As a result, Harris County Clerk Teneshia Hudspeth sent a memo Jan. 9 to all cities and entities the county previously contracted with to provide election administration services stating the county would not be able to support election needs for the May 4 election.
"The county clerk’s office estimates that the new guidelines would require establishing over 500 countywide polling places on election day for each countywide election. As a result, conducting elections on May 4 would present an equipment demand that would jeopardize the legal and successful administration of the March 5 primary elections and the May 28 primary runoffs, irrespective of whether the proposed May 4 election is subject to the same restrictions," the memo reads.
