HAYS COUNTY, Texas (KXAN) – Hays County has created an Election Integrity Task Force ahead of the November presidential election to address any potential complaints or allegations from Hays County voters.

Hays County officials said that complaints from voters about election integrity are uncommon, and the few they do get very seldom lead to criminal prosecution. Despite this, Elections Administrator Jennifer Doinoff said this task force is necessary to increase voter confidence in the election process. 

“Ever since 2020, we’ve had more interest in elections, more concerns and elections more doubt – that has had its toll on voter confidence,” Doinoff told KXAN. “This is an effort to try to increase voter confidence. It’s an effort to try to increase people’s awareness about elections, and what we’re doing to keep them safe, accurate [and] secure.”

The task force will comprise the Hays County Elections Office, District Attorney’s Office and local law enforcement agencies. Hays County residents can send any complaints or concerns to electionintegrity@co.hays.tx.us.

Having the task force will streamline the process of looking into any complaints or allegations, Doinoff said.

“I feel like this is a way to say, look, ‘If you’re out in the polling location, and you see something going on, here’s where you would report that, and then we could respond to you.’ I think it’s the only way that we can combat some of the misinformation out there,” Doinoff said. 

Doinoff said, for example, the task force may expect to receive complaints about illegal electioneering – expressing a preference for a candidate within 100 feet of a polling place.

“We saw that happen in the past,” Doinoff said. “Not here in Hays County but around the nation and the state.”

“We hope not to use [the email],” she continued. “But if there are concerns out there…We want it to go here so that people can have their questions answered expeditiously and kind of have a resolution to their concerns.”