The Texas Legislature is moving forward with a bill that would let the secretary of state redo elections in Harris County, where a number of Democratic candidates did well in the midterm elections and where GOP claims of bad election management have been a constant problem.
The bill was passed Tuesday by the Senate, which is run by Republicans and sent to the state House. If it passes, it will let the secretary of state throw out election results in the state’s biggest county and call for a new vote if there is “good cause” to think that at least 2% of polling places ran out of usable ballots during voting hours.
Secretary Of State To Invalidate Harris County Elections
The bill would only apply to areas with more than 2.7 million people, making Harris County, which is home to Houston and has nearly 5 million people, the only one affected. In the last few decades, the number of Democrats in Harris County has grown. You might read about Texas House Passes Harris County Election Chief Elimination Bill.
Last year, the Harris County Republican Party sued the county and Clifford Tatum, who ran the election, because of how the election was run. Many other Republicans also disputed their losses and asked for the election to be redone. During the election, there was a legal fight over whether voting hours should be extended in Harris County. This was because several polling places had problems, like not having enough ballot paper or opening late.
In an early look at the midterm elections of 2022, the Harris County Election Administration Office could not say for sure if paper shortages caused voters to be turned away. Tatum’s office sent a fact sheet in response to a request for comment. It listed improvements for future elections and problems that happened with elections before the county made the job of election administrator.
Mayes Middleton, a Republican state senator and co-sponsor of the bill, said that it would stop “systemic ballot paper denial.”
“There were really no problems with voting paper in 253 counties. In a speech on the Senate floor on Monday, Middleton said, “We had one that did.” “This is an important way to hold people accountable.”
State Sen. Borris Miles, a Democrat who represents part of Harris County, said that the county had problems with how elections were run, but that some of the claims of mismanagement were “more conspiracy than fact.” State Sen. Sarah Eckhardt, who is also a Democrat, said that a new election could cost tens of millions of dollars. She was criticizing the GOP plan. You must check out the latest news Texas Districts Spend $5 Billion In Property Taxes To Fund Other Schools.
Eckhardt said, “I agree 100% that no polling place should run out of paper.” “But the bill doesn’t say that the mistake must have changed the outcome of the election, or even that it probably did.”
An audit by the Texas secretary of state’s office of the 2020 election, which Tatum’s predecessor ran during the height of the Covid pandemic, found that Harris County had “very serious issues” with how it handled electronic media. But there was no proof of fraud or a plan to keep people from voting.
We have tweeted about Texas Senate passing a bill to allow the secretary of state to overturn Harris County elections. You can see below:
Texas Senate passes bill to allow the secretary of state to overturn Harris County elections.
These Maga Republicans just can't win fairly, so they ruthlessly just change the Democratic preference over to Republican.
As if Gerrymandering wasn't enough. This isn't getting out… pic.twitter.com/pFnZLIIwPo— Tracey Jennings Cavasin (@CavasinTracey) May 4, 2023
Conservative candidates and their followers are making more and more claims of election mismanagement and fraud since former President Donald Trump made unfounded claims of voter fraud after he lost the 2020 election. Mimi Marziani, a law professor at the University of Texas School of Law and a past president of the Texas Civil Rights Project, a non-profit group that fights for voter rights, said the bill was a “partisan power grab” over Harris County.
Marziani said, “It gives an unelected person the power, without any rules, to throw out an election when there are problems with the paper ballots.” “It’s easy to see how such a large amount of power could be used in a way that goes against democracy.”
She also said that there are ways to fix voting mistakes, such as a lawsuit or a recount.