Texas Election Official Resigns After Being Caught on Video Yelling at Confused Voter
A Texas election supervisor and judge resigned after she was caught on video yelling at a voter who was reportedly confused about where to vote.
The incident, which was recorded by another voter, occurred on Friday afternoon at the Williamson County Annex in Round Rock, Texas. Election supervisor and Judge Lila Guzman was caught on video yelling at the voter to leave.
"Get out. Get out. Get out. You are rude. You are not following the law. Go. Go," the Williamson County election supervisor and judge said.
The voter who recorded the incident told KVUE that they began recording when they realized the situation was "getting out of hand."
"She did tell her she couldn't vote there, but she didn't say where in Travis," the voter said. "The lady did have an accent. She could've been new to the country. I don't know, but she needed some help."
Guzman can be heard telling the confused voter that she will call the police to have her escorted out of the building. The voter left before the authorities arrived.
"Our supervisor loses her composure in the middle of this, and that's not something that we ever train our poll workers, supervisors, election judges and clerks to do," Williamson County Elections Administrator Chris Davis told KVUE.
Davis added, "We always train them and advise them to maintain control of the situation politely and answer voters' questions and give voter options so situations like these don't escalate."
The county elections administrator said he believed the voter arrived at Williamson County Annex after she was turned away by poll workers in Travis County. Davis told KVUE that the voter was registered to vote in Williamson County but lived in Travis County. She should have been sent to the Travis County Elections Division to cast a limited ballot, he said.
Guzman told KVUE that she resigned as election supervisor and judge and claimed she did so because she felt she did not receive the backup from Davis's office when she called police. Guzman would not be working on Election Day after resigning.
On Tuesday, the Travis County clerk's website crashed for a couple hours when voting locations across the county opened. Travis County spokeswoman Ginny Ballard told the Austin American-Statesman that the website may have crashed as voters flocked to check what they needed to bring to the polls and where they could cast their ballots.
The website was restored shortly before 9 a.m. on Tuesday, Ballard said.
