Global Courant 2023-05-03 23:31:54
Texas’ GOP-controlled Senate passed a bill Tuesday that would allow the state to quash elections in Harris County, home to Houston, the state’s most populous city.
Legislation penalizes county officials for running out of ballots at some polling places in the 2022 election, reported the Houston Chronicle. More importantly, it gives Republican Governor Greg Abbott “precedent-setting” power to reverse election results.
The measure would give the Abbott-appointed secretary of state the power to call new elections in the county if 2% or more of his polling stations run out of paper for more than an hour, the paper said.
Texas Governor Greg Abbott would have precedent-setting power to overturn elections if the bill passes as expected.
Texas Governor Greg Abbott would have precedent-setting power to overturn elections if the bill passes as expected.
The bill’s Republican co-author, Senator Mayes Middleton, said, “There’s no excuse why we can’t conduct our elections competently and have enough ballots.”
But Senate Democrats saw the move as simply handing the governor over to a way to roll back the results, as Republicans like former President Donald Trump and losing Arizona gubernatorial nominee Kari Lake. tried to do.
Harris County, which once skewed Republican, voted almost 56% Democratic in the last presidential election. Abbott and U.S. Senator Ted Cruz lost the county in recent reelection races, the Chron noted.
“You want to give a political appointee the opportunity to make a decision about whether or not to quash and hold elections again?” state Senator Royce West (D-Dallas) said.
Harris County Attorney Christian Menefee told the Chron that the bill “was about targeting the largest county in the state, which is led by people of color.”
County Commissioner Adrian Garcia said it was a form of “election denial”.
The bill now goes to the Republican-controlled Texas House.
Middleton said the shortfall “stopped countless people from voting on Election Day,” Fox 26 reported.
But one Houston Chronicle Study concluded that the paper shortage did not change the outcome of the Harris County election, and defied Republican claims of voter suppression in GOP-leaning areas. There was “no evidence that voters were systematically disenfranchised,” the study said.
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Abbott had previously said the paper shortage would “need new lawsaddressed to Harris County, Newsweek reports.
