Reply to the Secretary of State’s Lament on Mobile Voting Boxes in the Largest Harris County in the U.S.

The Texas Secretary of state’s use of the audit of the 2020 election as a means to disrupt the election processes in the largest county in Texas was suggested in a letter to the Attorney General by Turner, Menefee, and Hidalgo. The preliminary findings of the audit were categorized as “unremarkable suggestions to improve chain-of-Custody processes related to voting methods and equipment that Harris County no longer uses.”

The secretary of state said the teams are necessary because of their findings from the audit of the 2020 presidential election in Harris County, which includes Houston.

The launch of an audit in Texas, which Donald Trump carried in 2020, was preceded by partisan reviews in other states that looked to undermine the results of the election and demonstrate local Republicans fealty to the president.

Chad Ennis, director of the Forensic Audit Division, said in the Tuesday letter to Clifford Tatum, the Harris County elections administrator, that the audit division had identified a number of mobile ballot boxes from the 2020 general election that lacked “proper chain-of-custody” and that they are requesting corrective action.

The Texas attorney general has charged a record number of people with voter fraud. GOP state lawmakers have also passed new laws that increase potential criminal penalties against voters and election workers. Voting rights advocates have said many of these criminal offenses are related to innocent mistakes people make while casting ballots.

The secretary of state’s office responded in a statement later Thursday, calling the suggestions from the three Harris County officials “completely false and a cynical distortion of the law – and the truth – in an attempt to mislead voters, members of the public, the press and the U.S. Department of Justice.”

“We send them to many other counties, large and small, every single year,” Taylor said. Every year our office is required to send election inspectors to check out the elections if more than 15 voters request them, so they are supposed to check out the disputes in large elections.

Harris County Election Criminal Investigation: The Houston Area Attorney’s Office Aplied No Evidence of Intentional Criminal Conduct during the 2022 Midterm Election

After the election in 2022, there is a high level of tension between GOP state leaders and election officials in the Houston area.

Republicans are accusing Harris County officials of “election improprieties” that resulted in delayed polling site openings, paper ballot shortages and staffing issues on Election Day, among other things.

Harris County District Attorney Kim Ogg announced last month that she was mandated to open an investigation into the county’s midterm election following requests from Republican Gov. Greg Abbott and the Texas secretary of state’s office.

In a Nov. 14 letter, the secretary of state’s office told Ogg that it was seeking to review “possible unlawful conduct regarding the handling of blank paper ballots” during the election. State officials say their preliminary investigation, based on interviews with election judges, found the county may have been in violation of at least two sections of the Texas Election Code. In the letter, though, the secretary of state’s office did not provide any evidence of intentional criminal conduct.

However, local officials in Houston say this probe is part of a multi-year Republican effort to intimidate the state’s most racially diverse and populous county.

Menefee said it is surprising that they would stoop this far to try to suggest criminal conduct when the people on the ground are doing what they can to run elections.

The Harris County supervisor of elections resigned after thousands of mail ballots weren’t counted in time for the election, due to state law. Voting machines and staffing issues were reported.

According to reports filed with the secretary of state, many of the technical and staffing issues persisted during the November election.

The county’s logistical and operational issues have always been due to the fact that the county has hundreds of polling sites every election. He said that’s been true when both Democrats and Republicans ran elections there.

Source: https://www.npr.org/2022/12/08/1141075863/texas-harris-county-election-criminal-investigation

Corresponding with Daniel Griffith: Investigating the State of Texas and the Problems It Is Creating for a Republican-Governing Body

Daniel Griffith — senior policy director for Secure Democracy USA, an election policy advocacy group — said proving intent could be a hurdle to any criminal charges.

If the person is responsible for distributing election supplies and fails to do so by the deadline, the person will be committing an offense according to one of the sections of the election code.

Menefee said he believes the investigation is not going to find evidence that there was any intent among county staff to create problems for voters in 2022.

“I am sure when the smoke clears on this you are not going to find any examples of people trying to break the law or trying to sabotage our elections,” he said. “Instead you are going to see mistakes made by people who are trying to do a good job.”

Ultimately what is happening in Texas, Griffith said, is part of a larger trend in Republican-led states. He said there has been an increase in criminalizing elections.

He pointed to Florida state leaders recently creating an elections crimes unit and Georgia lawmakers expanding law enforcement investigatory power in elections, which he says could intimidate voters and election workers.

Griffith said instead of criminal investigations, state leaders in Texas should be working with Harris County officials to solve the problems they are facing — which could include more funding and resources for the large county.

“The atmosphere right now does not allow for those conversations,” he said. “The involvement of law enforcement only increases the inability to communicate and officials to cooperate.”

Source: https://www.npr.org/2022/12/08/1141075863/texas-harris-county-election-criminal-investigation

Escaping the tension in Harris County elections: Where will the state come from? How will Texas legislature try to accommodate the next legislative session?

This escalation in tension comes right as Texas lawmakers are preparing for a legislative session early next year. In the past few sessions, Harris County elections have been the focus of many hearings and even prominent voting measures.

He’s concerned that the state will attempt to play a bigger role in Harris County elections, similar to what they did in Georgia.