{"id":333051,"date":"2026-06-12T02:39:06","date_gmt":"2026-06-12T02:39:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/333051\/"},"modified":"2026-06-12T02:39:06","modified_gmt":"2026-06-12T02:39:06","slug":"tarrant-sheriff-district-attorney-mum-on-election-integrity-task-force-cite-short-notice-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/333051\/","title":{"rendered":"Tarrant sheriff, district attorney mum on election integrity task force, cite short notice"},"content":{"rendered":"

The work of Tarrant County\u2019s Republican-led election integrity task force<\/a> remains unclear after the county sheriff and district attorney declined to share details at a public meeting Tuesday.<\/p>\n

County commissioners were scheduled to hear a briefing on the task force\u2019s work during their June 9 meeting. Sheriff Bill Waybourn and District Attorney Phil Sorrells, who oversee the unit, didn\u2019t show up because they weren\u2019t given enough time to prepare.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe received word back from the sheriff\u2019s office and the DA\u2019s office that with the shortage of time of the notice to present that they would not be able to present at this meeting,\u201d county administrator Chandler Merritt told commissioners.<\/p>\n

If given \u201cmore time to adequately prepare,\u201d both the sheriff and district attorney would be willing to give the briefing at the next commissioners meeting, Merritt added.<\/p>\n

Commissioner Alisa Simmons, a Democrat who requested the briefing, questioned the elected officials\u2019 absences, saying the task force\u2019s work should be \u201ctransparent, accountable and subject to public review.\u201d She wants to know what the task force has completed since its creation in 2023 and how many complaints or cases it has reviewed.<\/p>\n

\u201cRoutine oversight requires information, and residents deserve to know how this task force is operating, what it has accomplished, and how it works to serve the public,\u201d Simmons said.<\/p>\n

Spokesperson Robbie Hoy confirmed via text message that Waybourn couldn\u2019t be present because of the short notice. The office was asked to \u201cprovide a lot of information which we didn\u2019t have readily available and would have taken time to gather,\u201d Hoy said.<\/p>\n

A spokesperson for the district attorney\u2019s office did not immediately return a request for comment.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s unclear when Simmons\u2019 office notified the sheriff and district attorney of the requested briefing. Simmons\u2019 spokesperson did not return a request for the date the offices were notified.<\/p>\n

As of 2024, the task force was made up of one sheriff\u2019s investigator and three attorneys<\/a> from the district attorney\u2019s office. The unit investigates election integrity complaints sent to either office.<\/p>\n

GOP County Judge Tim O\u2019Hare launched the task force with Waybourn and Sorrells, both Republicans, to make it easier for the public to report voter fraud<\/a>. O\u2019Hare is seeking reelection in November<\/a>, and Simmons is running against him.<\/p>\n

Neither O\u2019Hare nor commissioners Matt Krause and Manny Ramirez commented on the absences or scheduled briefing.<\/p>\n

Commissioner Roderick Miles said it\u2019s important to \u201cinspect what you expect.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s value in being able to inspect and critically review the information to make sure it’s meeting this court\u2019s expectations and this community\u2019s expectations,\u201d Miles said. \u201cI don\u2019t think that\u2019s too much to ask.\u201d<\/p>\n

Waybourn and Sorrells were also absent from a scheduled briefing on the task force in 2024. At the time, Merritt told commissioners the task force received 82 complaints of alleged voter fraud<\/a> but filed zero charges over 15 months.<\/p>\n

Since, Simmons said, there have been no public updates about the unit\u2019s work or what it\u2019s costing the county.<\/p>\n

Officials previously said the task force\u2019s creation would have \u201clittle to no budgetary impact\u201d<\/a> because it didn\u2019t require new staff positions.<\/p>\n

There have been no verified reports of widespread voter fraud in Tarrant County.<\/p>\n

In February at county elections administrator Clint Ludwig\u2019s request, a group of about 50 volunteers hand-counted the roughly 95,000 ballots cast in the Texas Senate District 9 runoff election that saw a historically red north Fort Worth district flip blue<\/a>. The audit, intended to verify the election\u2019s integrity, did not find any errors<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Cecilia Lenzen is a government accountability reporter for the Fort Worth Report. Contact her at cecilia.lenzen@fortworthreport.org<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n

At the Fort Worth Report, news decisions are made independently of our board members and financial supporters. Read more about our editorial independence policy here<\/a>.<\/p>\n

This article<\/a> first appeared on Fort Worth Report<\/a> and is republished here under a Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The work of Tarrant County\u2019s Republican-led election integrity task force remains unclear after the county sheriff and district…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":264418,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[13],"tags":[150,152,151],"class_list":["post-333051","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-arlington","tag-arlington","tag-arlington-headlines","tag-arlington-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/333051","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=333051"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/333051\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/264418"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=333051"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=333051"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=333051"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}