Daniel is hoping to unseat Bennett in tax assessor race
The role of Harris County tax assessor-collector will be simpler next year, since Commissioners Court decided to create an elections administration office to take over voter registration duties after November’s general election.
Managing the voter roll historically has been the responsibility of the tax assessor-collector, a vestige of a bygone era when those officeholders collected a poll tax. The assessor will retain other administrative duties, including collecting property taxes and registering vehicles.
Interest in the post, however, has not waned, and this year Republican former district clerk
Chris Daniel is challenging firstterm incumbent Democrat Ann Harris Bennett.
Bennett said she has improved the customer experience, raised the pay of junior employees and implemented a 36-month payment plan for residents behind on property tax payments.
“We don’t want to see people lose their properties because of some hardship they’ve had,” she said.
Bennett said she successfully has implemented a hybrid model in which her office still provides services during the COVID-19 pandemic. Many staff work from home, and some inperson functions are available by appointment only, as the county administration building
remains closed to the public.
Bennett’s tenure also has included several gaffes. Her office in 2018 mistakenly placed more than 1,700 voter registrations in suspension. Later that year, clerks failed to update boundary maps in Baytown that led to almost 300 voters receiving incorrect ballots.
Daniel said he would modernize the office and perform an audit of its functions to look for efficiencies. He said his experience leading the district clerk’s office after Hurricane Harvey, which caused a massive backlog in court cases and record filing, prepares him to manage any similar issues caused by the pandemic.
He said his skills include “being able to push technology, being able to push good management tools and being able to have outside-the-box, forward-thinking ideas that are bipartisan.”
“We had this long track record of doing really good things for Harris County,” Daniels said of his two terms as district clerk.
Both candidates oppose the switch to an elections administrator. Bennett, who said she was not consulted before the Democratic-led Commissioners Court pitched the idea, said an elected voter registrar is more accountable to voters than an appointed official.
She rejected the argument that an appointed elections administrator would face less political pressure than elected officials.
“Human nature tends to make you beholden to those who put you there,” Bennett said.
Daniels agreed and said he does not understand why Commissioners Court would rush to create an elections administration office during a hectic presidential election year, especially with a novice county clerk.
County elections workers in the county clerk and tax assessor-collector’s offices, he reasoned, should not have the additional stress of worrying how their jobs may change or be eliminated with the new office.
Daniels said, however, that he would be eager to work closely with the new office to help Harris County implement online voter registration. A federal judge ordered the Texas Department of Public Safety last month to allow drivers the option to register to vote online.
Republicans fared poorly in the past two election cycles and have not won a countywide race since 2014. Daniels lost his reelection bid for district clerk in 2018 by 10 points.