The Best Things in Texas, 2021: Lina Hidalgo and Chris Hollins

[Gothmog]

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For years, politicos and policy wonks have kicked around ideas for how to increase election turnout in Texas, where voters usually show up in pitifully low numbers. And Texas officials knew that if turnout did rise during 2020’s closely contested presidential election, the pandemic would pose tremendous challenges to our electoral infrastructure.

Enter 29-year-old Harris County Judge Lina Hidalgo and 34-year-old county clerk Chris Hollins. Under Hidalgo’s leadership, the Harris County Commissioners’ Court appropriated $29 million for the election, seven times more than in 2016. But just as important as the funding was choosing the right election administrator. When the sitting county clerk resigned in May, following a disastrous March primary election marred by six-hour lines and computer glitches, the commissioners selected Hollins, a management consultant at McKinsey and Company and the Texas Democratic Party’s vice chair of finance, to serve as interim clerk.

It was an unconventional pick: Hollins, a fifth-generation Texan, had never held public office or overseen an election. But he hit the ground running, embracing an array of innovative ideas, including 24-hour voting, drive-through voting, and ballot drop boxes. Hollins recruited 11,000 poll workers to staff a record number of early voting locations as well as Election Day polling places. And he spent heavily on personal protective equipment for both election workers and voters.

“It’s important that voters are able to cast their votes safely,” Hollins told Texas Monthly before the election, “but also to do so conveniently and with the peace of mind of knowing that their votes are going to be counted.”