Harris County Clerk Teneshia Hudspeth reacts as ballots are brought in and counted at the Harris County Election Center in Houston on Tuesday, March 3, 2026.
Elizabeth Conley/Houston Chronicle
Polls show U.S. Senate nominee Ken Paxton may become the first Republican candidate to lose a statewide election in Texas in more than 30 years, leading advocates to worry that Paxton and President Donald Trump could leverage federal resources and Paxton’s role as Texas Attorney General to disrupt the election.
From the specter of immigration agents at polling locations to the seizure of ballot boxes amid baseless claims of fraud, many worry the election will test the limits of American democracy – and that these efforts could target Harris County, the state’s largest and a Democratic powerhouse. But Harris County officials and democracy organizations say they, and the electoral system, are prepared to fight any challenges that may arise.
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“We can imagine those plainclothes, masked federal agents without warrants or badges showing up at the polling places to intimidate our fellow Texans from voting,” former El Paso Congressman Beto O’Rourke at an Oct. 20 rally in Houston. “You can imagine that on election night (Trump) says: ‘Illegal immigrants are voting in record numbers in the Third Ward in Houston, in San Antonio and El Paso. I have ordered the National Guard to seize the ballot boxes to stop this fraud.’ That will be our moment of truth.”
Acting on debunked claims of fraud in the 2020 election Trump lost, the FBI seized ballots in Georgia in January. Trump has since pushed states to turn over sensitive voter registration data, mandate stricter identification requirements at the ballot box and limit voting by mail, though courts have often blocked these efforts.
Then there’s Paxton, the state’s top law enforcement official, who has a dubious legal history. Paxton sued to overturn elections in four states after the 2020 election in support of Trump’s baseless allegations, then spoke at Trump’s Jan. 6 rally before the attack on the U.S. Capitol.
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READ MORE: Texas State Bar sues AG Paxton for ‘dishonest’ challenge of 2020 election results
The Legislature last year also gave Paxton a new tool, passing a bill to restore his ability to unilaterally prosecute election fraud crimes after a Texas court in 2021 said the attorney general could only take up such cases if a local prosecutor requested help.
For Harris County Clerk Teneshia Hudspeth, however, it’s just another election.
Sporting her typical cheery confidence, the county’s chief elections officer said her office has spent the better part of the year preparing for November while running a “marathon” of other contests.
Her staff has run drills, distributed refreshers on who can and cannot be within 100 feet of a polling location and worked to ensure any efforts to disrupt the election fail, Hudspeth said.
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“We’re prepared to make sure that we run a good, flowing election,” Hudspeth said. “I’m confident in my leadership and all our offices, including the state of Texas Secretary of State.”
Commissioners Court also recently granted County Attorney Abbie Kamin authority to quickly file election litigation should the need arise.
“We have been focused on this not just since last week or the week before,” Kamin said. “We have been preparing for this.”
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David Becker, founder of the Center for Election Innovation and Research, a nonpartisan democracy organization, said the Trump administration’s past attempts to interfere with local election operations have all fallen flat.
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“What I have seen over the course of the last two years is that our institutions are more resilient against these challenges than some have feared,” Becker said. “Particularly the public servants who run elections. In Texas especially, the 254 counties have been so resilient.”
Rex VanMiddlesworth of Keep Our Republic, a nonpartisan election integrity organization, added that the best way to fight off baseless fraud allegations is to keep from making mistakes that accusers could use as ammunition. The tense environment will encourage elections officials to run a tight ship this year, he said.
“The process is designed to work whether people make unfounded claims about it or not,” he said. “The votes get counted, the election gets certified and if the ballots show that someone won, they will win.”
What about ICE?
Trump’s ongoing immigration crackdown — which has left one dead and another injured in Houston — is among officials’ sources of electoral concern.
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No specific incidents of intimidation by federal agents at local polls have been reported, though whispers about unmarked cars have been swirling in immigrant communities, said Leticia Gutierrez, the Democratic nominee for a U.S. House seat in a majority-Hispanic district.
“Rumors spread quickly, and that’s what we’re trying to dispel,” Gutierrez said at a Friday press conference in Houston’s East End.
Harris County Democratic Party chair Traci Gibson said her organization has 50 attorneys on standby to help with voter issues.
And U.S. Rep. Sylvia Garcia, D-Houston, said her office is distributing yellow cards with instructions about what to do in a hypothetical encounter with law enforcement at the polls.
Garcia told the Houston Chronicle editorial board earlier this month that Houston should be “ready and prepared” for the possibility of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents around polling places on Election Day, noting that Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin has not ruled it out.
Mullin has previously said that immigration agents could be sent to the election sites in the event of emergency or to serve a warrant, but has otherwise promised that ICE agents would not be present at polling places.
Federal law prohibits the military or other “armed agents” from maintaining a presence at polling places.
But if they do cross that line, Hudspeth said residents should report it – along with any other suspicious activity – to the nearest election worker. It’s their job to report it to the election judge, who will determine the next steps. That could include contacting local law enforcement.
Every county law enforcement agency from the Fire Marshal to the Harris County Sheriff’s Office is part of a workgroup tasked with safeguarding ballots. Deputies with those agencies are the only ones authorized to lock and unlock ballot boxes, Hudspeth said.
That means ensuring every step is properly documented as ballots are transferred from polling locations to regional collection sites and on to the county’s central count facility, a warehouse near George Bush Intercontinental Airport. Poll watchers from both parties are also authorized to monitor the ballots throughout each step of the process.
Will of the public
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Running elections in the country’s third-largest county is no easy task, and Harris County has had its share of problems, particularly in 2022.
The election that November, which Hudspeth did not oversee, was marred by ballot paper shortages. Twenty-one Republicans sued to challenge the results in the months that followed, and one close judicial race was overturned. The remaining 20 were dropped or dismissed.
Elections at the time were overseen by the county’s short-lived elections administrator, a position created by Commissioners Court in 2020. Hudspeth has led elections operations since 2023, and has received widespread praise from officials on both sides of the aisle.
State Sen. Paul Bettencourt, R-Houston, who served as the county’s voter registrar from 1998 to 2008 as Harris County Tax Assessor-Collector, authored the legislation that returned elections administration to Hudspeth’s office. Bettencourt said she has done a far better job than her immediate predecessors.
“The only way the system works is if in bipartisan unanimity, everybody gets the job done according to the law,” Bettencourt said. “If they do, and a Democrat happens to be elected, that’s the will of the public and that has to be respected.”
Former Harris County attorney and U.S. Rep. Christian Menefee, D-Houston, said the bipartisan support for Hudspeth is a testament to her leadership.
“Her reputation is so strong that Houstonians of all political parties will know that if Donald Trump comes making demands of state Republicans in Texas to try and question how these elections are run, that is a reflection of Donald Trump and his willingness to lie,” Menefee said.
To combat conspiracies and claims of fraud, election officials have opened the process of counting and keeping ballots to more observers. In some places, officials have used livestream video to show election headquarters.
Texas law since 2021 has mandated that urban counties stream ballot counting operations.
That increased transparency, from video feeds to more public review of paperwork by placing it online, has assuaged many people’s concerns, said Eric Olsen, director of elections for Prince William County, Va.
“Once you start to demonstrate those things for people, that spreads to other people,” Olsen said during an Oct. 14 discussion held by the Partnership for Large Election Jurisdictions, an association focused on election operations in large counties.
Hudspeth said transparency is one of the most potent tools at her disposal for disarming baseless allegations of malfeasance.
“You’re going to always have the hecklers and the conspiracy theorists and things of that nature,” Hudspeth said. “If that’s how you feel about it, then come sign up and be an election worker. Start learning this side of this operation, or come here to election headquarters and watch everything that we do for the next 90 days.”