Darryl Blackburn, 35, faces five charges of tampering with evidence and faces up to two years in prison for each charge. He was also charged with theft of a public servant, for which he faces up to 10 years.

The Texas Rangers reportedly found out that Blackburn had lied about his employment status. The investigation revealed that Blackburn held full-time jobs with Harris County as well as a full-time job in The Woodlands for 15 months. Investigators said he billed for the same hours on the same days while working in person in The Woodlands and also while claiming to be working remotely for the county.

"This is 15 months of sustained double-dipping on timesheets. He worked exclusively from home for Harris County, yet frequently worked in person at his other higher paying job in The Woodlands," Levine said.
The oil and gas job in The Woodlands earned him $250,000 a year and was not an approved second job by the county. The elections job paid him $90,000 that same year, according to investigators.

For the 2022 election, Blackburn was in charge of allocating paper ballots to voting sites in Harris County. A shortage of paper ballots at some voting sites caused some voters to not be able to cast a ballot, Ogg said.
Investigators said he allocated the same amount of paper ballots to 98% of all 700 or so polling places despite wildly different historical voter turnouts.

Prosecutors said that on Election Day in 2022, between his two jobs, Blackburn claimed he worked 26 hours. One of his charges stems from a time when Blackburn took paternity leave through the county job and said he wouldn't work even though he was allegedly at his second job. He allegedly collected $21,000 while on leave.

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