Quote:

---

The elected official in charge of Harris County's voter registration and tax collection appears to have been absent from her office for years, last swiping her ID to enter the county building in late 2020, county records show.

First sworn into office in 2017, Tax Assessor-Collector Ann Harris Bennett is tasked with a wide array of duties that affect nearly every Harris County resident, from collecting billions of dollars in property taxes to processing millions of vehicle registrations and title transfers every year. As the county's voter registrar, she also oversees voter registration and maintains records for over 2.5 million voters.

---

Her prolonged absence from public view raises questions about what she has done since she was reelected in 2020, when she appears to have stopped showing up at the office. She has also hardly corresponded via email and missed a string of key public appearances last year while state Republican leaders targeted Harris County's election process.

--

The head of around 500 employees in the tax office, Bennett earned $171,199 in salary last year, according to the county's auditor's office. But several blunders during her tenure have cast doubt on her performance.

In 2018, her office mistakenly suspended over 1,700 voters' registrations, sparking a partisan clash between Harris County Democrats and Republicans. Bennett blamed the mistake on a software glitch and said her office quickly addressed the problem upon discovering it.

That same year, her office failed to update boundary maps in Baytown, resulting in hundreds of voters receiving incorrect ballots and being excluded from numerous local races. Even after the mistake was corrected, those who had already cast their votes with the wrong ballots were not allowed to vote again. Bennett did not comment on the incident.

---