The Armstead Jones era of Baltimore elections has ended.

The Baltimore City Board of Elections selected newcomer Clifford Tatum to serve as the city’s new election director, opting against the deputy to the longtime director.

Tatum previously served as short stint as election director in Harris County, Texas, a jurisdiction of more than five million people that encircles Houston. Tatum was forced from the job in 2023 when Texas’s Republican-controlled legislature passed a law eliminating his office and transferring his responsibilities to other officials.

Baltimore’s elections office has been without a permanent director since April when Jones announced his retirement. Capping a nearly two-decade tenure, Jones, an oft-criticized but memorable figure, was to continue to hold the post until May 1. Instead, within hours of making his plans public, he died unexpectedly.

In the days since, Deputy Director Abigail Goldman has led the office on an acting basis, a role she filled several times before when Jones was on medical leave. That experience coupled with Jones’s frequent reliance on Goldman when he was in the office led many familiar with the board to believe she would be Jones’s successor.

Instead, the city election board, a five-member bipartisan panel, elected to go with Tatum.

A graduate of Guilford College in North Carolina who holds a law degree from Cooley Law School in Michigan, Tatum previously served as general counsel to the U.S. Election Assistance Commission. He also worked as executive director to the Board of Elections in Washington, D.C. from 2011 to 2015 and later served as the board’s chief information security officer. He has worked intermittently as an elections consultant.

In his role with Harris County, Tatum faced an investigation following the 2022 election. The Houston Landing reported that the contest was marred by paper ballot shortages at some polling locations. An audit found “multiple failures” that hampered voting, including discrepancies in the total number of registered voters and inadequate supplies at polling places.

The two-year probe found one employee falsifying timecards, but found no evidence of fraud or election-related crimes. The county was forced to cover nearly half a million dollars in legal fees for Tatum.

The universe of people qualified to serve as an election director is a relatively small one, and in a world where the integrity of elections are under attack, few applicants have been clamoring for the positions.

Among the 24 director spots in Maryland, Baltimore’s post is more fraught than others. The city’s downtown election office is separate from its West Baltimore election warehouse, divided by a more than 15-minute drive, making logistics more complicated. The warehouse, built in 1970, is in desperate need of replacement. And, unlike other Maryland jurisdictions, the building is managed by a contractor rather than in-house staff, an arrangement that has attracted criticism.

Jones, a Republican, found himself in the hot seat when things went wrong in the office.

During the 2024 primary election, Baltimore’s vote totals mysteriously dropped, altering the standing of several tightly contested City Council races. The State Board of Elections eventually attributed the issue to “human error” as a result of flash drives full of votes being double counted. Jones insisted “nobody should have lost anything.”

If the board was inclined toward a cultural shift, it may have been encouraged by a number of local election advocates who urged it to make a “transformative” selection in the next director. In a letter delivered by Baltimore Votes and signed by ACLU of Maryland, Common Cause Maryland and the League of Women Voters of Baltimore City, the coalition advocated for a director with visionary and strategic leadership, plans to modernize the office and a willingness to engage with the community.

The board chose not to respond to the group, citing advice from its attorney.

Misti McKeehen, a representative for Baltimore Votes who delivered the letter to the board, said she felt hopeful about Tatum’s selection. The coalition will ask him for a meeting as soon as he arrives, she said, and hopes to work in collaboration.

“I think we’re moving forward with optimism,” she said. “Like the letter called for, we’re looking for strategic and transparent leadership but also the opportunity to do things a little bit differently.”

Maryland has seen a changing of the guard among election officials at the state level in recent years. Jared DeMarinis, formerly the director of candidacy and campaign finance for the State Board of Elections, was picked to lead the group in 2023 after the retirement of Linda Lamone, who held the post for more than 25 years. DeMarinis was selected over Lamone’s longtime deputy.

DeMarinis said Tuesday that the was pleased with the city board’s interview process for the new director. There were numerous qualified candidates, internal and external, he said.

“I’m excited for Baltimore City and the new election director taking on the challenges ahead, most notably getting a new warehouse for the board,” he said.

A job posting for the election director position said it would pay between $95,991 and $176,552. Jones was paid $149,000 in 2024.