BEAUMONT — The Jefferson County commissioners heard from the county clerk about creating an elections administrator.

Jefferson County Clerk Carolyn Guidry, a democrat, gave the presentation to the commissioners and said the new position would help to ease the burden of the election season on her office.

“As far as time goes, my employees spend almost 80% of the time working on elections or preparing for elections,” Guidry said. “Sometimes, we have three to five elections per year. When we’re not in the elections, we’re preparing the equipment and doing maintenance on the equipment. Everything has to be taken apart and redone all over again.”

The new position would do jobs currently assigned to the clerk and also the tax assessor and collector Allison Getz, a republican.

Getz, however, said she first learned of the presentation when it showed up on the agenda.

Precinct 2 Commissioner Brent Weaver wanted the two to work together to come up with a conclusion.

“For this to work, it’s going to involve both offices,” he said. “I don’t understand. Obviously, y’all need to communicate. I think it’s critical that we work together if it’s something that’s viable. It’s a little worrisome that there hasn’t been communication between these two offices.”

Getz confirmed that she was not in favor of giving up her voter registration duties.

“I’m open to listening to any proposal about anything,” Getz said. “I’m hesitant to let voter registration go from my office without a compelling reason that makes sense. I like the fact that we have checks and balances between our offices to run the elections.”

Guidry said the commissioners will have to decide which route is best for the county.

“We’re going to disagree about whether or not we should have one,” Guidry said. “That’s why I’m trying to present the facts to the court and to the people.”

The elections administrator would answer to the election commission, which is made up of the county clerk, voter registrar, two party chairs and the county judge.

Getz said she wanted to clarify that she is not opposed to the county creating a new position.

“I just think it’s something that we have to go forward thoughtfully,” she said.

Both party chairs attended the workshop and spoke to the commissioners.

“I’ve often been concerned about the historically partisan state of our county,” Republican Party chair Judy Nichols said. “That is begging to change. If there is partisanship in either of these two offices administering our elections, I’m a little concerned that we may not have a remedy if we end up with a partisan administrator, and that is a big concern of mine.”

Nichols said she was in favor of the concept when she looked at Orange County’s position, but is enthusiastic about it now.

Nichols also said that Getz’s reduction in duties will not mean a reduction in pay.

“We’re open to the idea,” Nichols said. “We just want a little more comfort that there is a deep dive into all of the implications.”

Democratic Party Chair Cade Bersen said he is in favor of the idea, but would like to see it fleshed out more. Both parties agreed that one of the hurdles would be finding a system to determine if an individual in the position is unbiased. Jefferson County Judge Jeff Branick said the court will seek information from other counties about how the position is hired.