Veteran Ohio elections official selected as Dallas County Elections Administrator

The five-member Dallas County Elections Commission on Tuesday appointed a veteran elections official from Ohio to lead the elections department.

Paul Adams, who has served since 2010 as the director of elections in Lorain County, Ohio, just west of Cleveland, was selected from 40 applicants and four finalists to serve as Dallas County Elections Administrator and oversee 1.4 million registered voters.

Adams will succeed Heider Garcia, who resigned effective Aug. 29 after less than three years in the role to work for elections technology company Hart InterCivic.

“Mr. Adams has a wealth of experience,” County Judge Clay Jenkins said in an interview. “I feel that he’ll do a good job for Dallas County.”

In 2024 while serving as elections chief in Lorain County, population of more than 300,000 people, Adams was selected to serve as president of Ohio’s state association of election professionals during the presidential election year.

In that role he set priorities for resources and programs for state elections officials and coordinated with the Secretary of State’s office on voter registration programs, according to his resume.

He also served as a coordinator for the Ohio Secretary of State from 2009 to 2010, where he oversaw voter registration practices and their implementation across 88 counties, his resume states.

“I’m honored to have been selected by the commission,” Adams said in a statement to The Dallas Morning News. “Though I’ve served as an election official in Ohio since 2003, and a director of elections since 2010, I look forward to the opportunity and challenges this new role presents.”

The Dallas County Elections Commission met in closed executive session on Tuesday to interview the four finalists.

They included Adams; Dallas County Deputy Elections Administrator Malissa Kouba; Dallas County Elections Department Human Resources Manager Robert Heard; and Matt Morales founder of the National Cybersecurity Defense Institute in Mesa Arizona.

Kouba, who has served in her role for four years and has led the Elections Department since Garcia’s resignation, said in an interview she is looking forward to collaborating with Adams.

“Just like an election, candidates don’t always win,” Kouba said. “I trust the process and trust they picked who they felt is best for the position.”

Jenkins said he expects Adams to begin work in Dallas County in about three weeks. Although Adams’ contract will have to be finalized, Garcia was paid $194,670 annually, according to 2025 human resources records.

Adams will be responsible for leading a department with 1.4 million registered voters – far more than the 223,000 registered voters in Lorain County.

He will be arriving as the county is preparing for the constitutional amendment election in November and the March primary.

The elections commission that selected Adams is made up of Jenkins; County Clerk John Warren; Tax Assessor John Ames; Dallas County Democratic Chair Kardal Coleman; and Dallas County Republican Chair Allen West.

Garcia, Adam’s predecessor, came to Dallas County in 2023 after serving as Tarrant County’s elections administrator for about five years, where he faced tremendous personal pressure while fielding death threats, misinformation and unfounded claims of voter fraud. He earned respect in the field and served as a senior subject matter expert for the U.S. Election Assistance Commission.

In Dallas County Garcia oversaw a crisis during early voting for the Nov. 4 general election, when electronic pollbooks from Election Systems & Software failed, resulting in nearly 4,000 voters casting ballots tied to precincts where they did not live.

He helped secure new devices from St. Louis-based KNOWiNK in time for the May 3 municipal elections.

Although new pollbooks have been secured, Jenkins said Adams will be responsible for monitoring the continued use of the new devices.

It will also be about “getting up to speed on the changes with Texas election law,” Jenkins said, “and winning over the people of the elections department.” Depending on decisions made later this month, Adams could also play a role in overseeing a major change being considered by the Dallas County Republican Party for the March primary.

On Sept. 15, the party’s executive committee is expected to decide whether to hand-count tens of thousands of ballots that will be cast in its March 3 gubernatorial primary, a monumental proposal that elections experts say is prone to inaccuracies and logistical issues.

Chairman Allen West said the party’s executive committee will discuss five “courses of action” that could include hand-marked paper ballots and hand-counting during early voting or on election day — or both. He declined to detail the five scenarios until the party’s Sept. 15 meeting.

Political parties typically contract with counties to run their primaries. A team from the Republican Party began discussing their proposal in July with Garcia and Kouba.

Kouba said the party and her office are still discussing logistics to formalize a contract but have differences in interpretation on whether the law gives the county or party authority to make certain decisions. She said the contract must be in place by December but she would like to formalize it sooner.