The Harris County Clerk's Elections Department has the responsibility of carrying out statutory electoral functions outlined by federal and state laws. Some of the electoral functions include:

Providing training to all Presiding and Alternate Election Judges to ensure the proper execution of state and federal election law during each county/federal election;

Creating the ballot for county, state and federal elections in a manner provided by the state law;

Establishing the number of Early Vote Centers in Harris County and schedule of voting hours (subject to approval by Commissioners Court);

Securing Election Day Vote Centers (subject to approval by Commissioners Court);

Securing the County’s election equipment and maintenance of equipment;

Accepting requests for ballots to be sent by mail and processing all returned ballots for tabulation;

Storing official campaign disclosure forms for local candidates;

Archiving official election results and voter histories for Harris County and reporting this information to the Secretary of State for district, statewide, and federal offices.

In short, the Elections Department works with the Commissioners Court, the major political parties and other stakeholders to establish an elections infrastructure that facilitates access to the voting process to the citizenry of the third largest county in the United States.