McLennan County’s Democratic and Republican party chairs don’t agree on much, but they’ve found common ground in criticisms of a state GOP official’s handling of a recent poll-watcher training session.

Last week, McLennan County Democratic Party Chairwoman Karen Petree took exception to a comment State Republican Executive Committee member Janet Jackson made at a Tuesday poll-watcher training session in Waco.

Jackson, a Clifton resident, told the class that as voters, “When you come in, most of the time they say, ‘Are you still at this address?’ So if you moved, you don’t want to tell them,” according to an audio recording of the event obtained by the Tribune-Herald.

Karen Gilchrist sets up voting booths at Lake Shore United Methodist Church in preparation for Tuesday's election.
Jerry Larson / Waco Tribune-Herald

Petree also criticized Jackson for laughing off concerns that poll watchers could overstep their bounds, in an interview with KXXV-TV, Channel 25.

“Laughing about voter intimidation is offensive enough,” Petree said, “but to actually instruct poll watchers — who are supposed to protect the sanctity of our elections — on how to commit potential voter fraud by lying about their home addresses is beyond the pale.”

Jackson has said her comment was made in jest — a moment of levity in an hourlong training session. On Monday, she made a distinction between the instruction the poll watchers received to perform their official duties and the comment, which concerned their actions as voters.

“I think this is a real far stretch to build a case for voter intimidation,” Jackson said, “and I’m sort of glad that’s their entire case.”

She added that Democrats ignored the broader context of the training session, which she said was done by the book.

Petree responded by saying that Jackson did a disservice to voters and the attendees of the event by putting out misinformation.

“People were there to learn how to be part of the election process, not for a comedy hour,” she said.

It wasn’t just Democrats who blasted Jackson for her conduct during the training session and her tone in subsequent interviews.

“I was absolutely appalled at the way she handled the whole thing from start to finish,” said McLennan County Republican Party Chairman Joe Hinton, who has clashed with Jackson in the past.

“I thought she was very unprofessional and flippant in her reaction to the questions being asked of her,” he said. “I’m obviously not a supporter of the Democrats, but I think they were right in asking those questions.”

Hinton also said he was surprised that Jackson conducted the training. He said poll watchers — who keep an eye out for instances of voter fraud or other irregularities without directly interacting with voters — are traditionally trained and certified by the local party or individual candidates.

“I seriously question her authority to come into McLennan County and launch a poll-watcher program,” Hinton said, noting that Jackson lives and votes in Bosque County.

Jackson said her class was part of an initiative of the Republican Party of Texas and that McLennan County was too important to leave out.

Asked about Hinton’s concern he’d been bypassed, Jackson said, “That’s just too bad.”

“We didn’t see anything else going on, (and) Chet’s won for 20 years, so something’s got to change,” she said, referring to Democratic U.S. Rep. Chet Edwards, who faces a challenge today from Bryan Republican Bill Flores.

Jackson reached out to Hinton, but she said she was hung up on and had her e-mails ignored. So she moved forward with the training, which was advertised in e-mails sent by the Waco Tea Party.

The state election code allows three county party precinct chairs to appoint poll watchers “if the county chair fails to act,” and Jackson was joined by the low-ranking GOP officials, who certified the trainees.

Hinton acknowledged that he and Jackson are not on speaking terms. The reason, he said, is Jackson has sent a number of e-mails personally attacking county party officials and their spouses.

“Poll watching is fine,” he said, “and had she come at that thing from another direction, I might have been amenable to signing off on that stuff. But she really comes at it the wrong way.”

County elections administrator Kathy Van Wolfe said poll watchers are nothing new in McLennan County.

Asked if there have been major instances of voter fraud or voter intimidation by poll watchers in the past, Van Wolfe, who’s worked at the elections office for 14 years, said, “Not that I’m aware of since I’ve been here.”

She predicted one new development this election cycle, given controversies locally and in other areas of Texas about poll watching.

“They may have poll watchers just to watch the poll watchers.”

mshapiro@wacotrib.com

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