Brazos County election administrator addresses voter roll concerns (2024)

During Tuesday’s meeting of the Brazos County Commissioners Court, county Election Administrator Trudy Hanco*ck gave a presentation to clear up some concerns brought by residents during the previous week.

Last week, Brazos County resident Cynthia Wiley spoke during the public comment period of the commissioners’ meeting and brought up several concerns she had allegedly found in the Brazos County voter rolls. Wiley said that she had found 54 voters in the roll who were over 100 years old and 22 voters who had the same birthday of Jan. 1, 1901. She also said that she and some other residents had submitted 700 to 800 challenges for “suspicious” voters on the roll.

During this week’s meeting, Hanco*ck confirmed that although Wiley and the other citizens’ statistics had been correct, their assumptions about the statistics were not.

“You have to go back a long way in history to look at some of this information and interpret it properly,” Hanco*ck said. “Prior to the Help America Vote Act in 2002 … you could walk in, register to vote with your name and a description of where you live. You did not have to produce any documents. You didn’t have to have a physical address.”

Now, eligible voters must have proof of a physical address, a birthdate, a social security number and other government identification in order to be added to the voter rolls, Hanco*ck said.

“If people were already registered, we cannot require them to give us their date of birth,” she said. “So, we do have a lot of records for individuals who appear to be 100 and however many years old because this date is a placeholder of [Jan. 1, 1901] for that birthdate. Those voters are probably not that old, but because they have not moved, they have not changed anything on their voter registration history. They have not made a new application. We cannot force them to put that information on file.”

Of the 22 voters with the placeholder birthday, Hanco*ck said that 15 have no voting history at all.

“Just because you have no voting history, does not mean we cancel you,” she said. “We do have four of those voters on suspense. They got on suspense I would guess because we sent them their voter registration card in the mass mail and it came back saying it was undeliverable.”

Despite the rarity of people who live to be over 100, Hanco*ck said they do sometimes have people above that age who choose to vote and so they cannot put someone on probation simply for their age.

“I will tell you that we did have a 102-year-old-voter vote in-person in the primary,” she said. “So, one of these individuals who is listed as having a birthdate of [Jan. 1, 1901] did walk into her polling place on election day during the primary.”

Hanco*ck said that she and others in her office are always willing to answer questions, but that none of the concerned citizens had done so before speaking during the public comment period last week.

“There are some things that may appear to be suspect or unusual, but they all have explanations,” she said. “I have many times stood here in public [and] expressed openly to the group [of concerned residents] that if you have questions, please call me. … I would have immediately known what the Jan. 1, 1901, was. Those questions were never posed to my office directly.”

As for the 700 to 800 voter roll challenges submitted, Hanco*ck said that to date her office has received 608 and 433 of those were rejected due to the affidavit lacking required information.

“Two of those were rejected with no cause; it was found the voter’s address was in an RV park, as you know, you don’t have to have a permanent location to be registered to vote,” she said. “Since this has been a pretty hot topic lately, it has been required that the voter desiring to challenge a registration must file with the registrar a sworn statement of the ground for the challenge.”

Despite there being no evidence of election interference in Brazos County, Hanco*ck said it is difficult to not be personally offended by the continued accusations against her and her office in recent years.

“I have people tell me and tell my staff, ‘Don’t take critical comments and things personally.’ That’s very hard to do,” she said. “Most of our staff give tirelessly and go above and beyond to do their jobs. … To them, they care about what goes on. My staff that handles voter registration, they do a phenomenal job. They make sure all the I’s are dotted [and] the T’s are crossed.”

Following Hanco*ck’s presentation — which can be viewed in full on both the county’s YouTube channel and Facebook page — Precinct 4 Commissioner Wanda Watson thanked Hanco*ck and her colleagues for all that they do.

“As one in my former life whose work started out as an election worker and then as an election judge, then as the Democratic Party county chair, I had an opportunity to work with you all,” she said. “I thought you all did a phenomenal job. I want to give you and your staff an ‘atta girl’ because I feel like the election is well run [and] continues to be well run.”