The comment came as O’Hare announced he would call an elections board meeting to discuss replacing outgoing election administrator Heider Garcia, who resigned following a meeting with O’Hare. In his resignation letter, Garcia said he would not compromise his values.

“The system was not broken ... It was broken by the hand of you, Judge O’Hare,” Brooks said.

In his resignation letter, Garcia wrote his “formula to ‘administer a quality transparent election’ stands on respect and zero politics” and that compromising on those values wasn’t an option for him.

“You made it clear in our last meeting that your formula is different, thus, my decision to leave,” Garcia wrote. “I wish you the best; Tarrant County deserves that you find success.”

After Brooks’ comment, O’Hare asked the longtime commissioner to explain to the public how he broke the system.

Brooks told O’Hare that the only evidence he had for breaking the elections system was the line in Garcia’s letter about his meeting with the county judge and their disagreements with administering transparent and nonpolitical elections. He told O’Hare that if his “hand-picked successor” did not see the same success as Garcia then Tarrant County would not be well-served.

After Brook’s comment, O’Hare said Garcia chose to resign on his own and wanted to respect the conversation they had because Garcia had asked him to “keep it quiet.”

“It was a surprise to me when it wasn’t quiet,” O’Hare said.

O’Hare said he will ask the county attorney how to go about communicating what’s going on without violating open meetings law. The county judge also chairs the county’s elections board.

“I will do exactly what I did on that day,” O’Hare said. “I wish him nothing but success and wish him well. And I’m not going to air dirty laundry, but if I get approval to speak to one of you individually as to what happened I’m happy to do so.”

Other commissioners thanked Garcia for his service.

“Elections by nature are political, and they are polarizing,” commissioner Manny Ramirez said. “But I don’t think the administration of those elections should be either.”

Ramirez hoped the elections board would move quickly to find a capable and competent successor. Commissioner Alisa Simmons called Garcia’s resignation “concerning” and “terrifying.”

Ramirez, who found out about Garcia’s resignation when he was called by the Star-Telegram for comment Monday, said that while the county had good reporters, county administration had a communication problem.

O’Hare had planned to have a closed-door meeting to discuss the election administrator’s performance following the May 6 election, he told True Texas Project members during an April 10 meeting.

Garcia will stay in his position until June 23 to allow his staff to complete duties surrounding May 6 municipal elections and potential runoffs. Early voting begins April 24.

Poll book approval

Tension over Tarrant County’s elections continued in a different way when commissioners approved a new electronic poll book system for the county’s elections office Tuesday. A poll book is used to keep track of registered voters who have cast ballots.

O’Hare asked many questions of assistant elections administrator Troy Havard, namely about the benefits of the system and whether it would be difficult to conduct municipal elections without the system in place. Havard said not having an electronic system would make it easy for voters who voted in one location to cast a vote at another location.

Garcia was not present at Tuesday’s meeting.

Karen Wiseman, the woman who put a letter asking whether one Fort Worth resident cast their vote at a Stop Six voting location in their mail box, told the commissioners the new system was “hackable.” She asked whether it would be appropriate to have the new elections administrator pick their own system.

Another woman who did not identify herself spoke in favor of doing manual poll books and said it would not be easy to go vote in another location with a manual system. Her comments drew cheers from some audience members.

And when the county unanimously approved the new system, there were gasps from the same audience members.

“Are you kidding me?” one woman said.