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Texas governor Greg Abbott (R) wants an investigation over midterm elections in Harris County [1]

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Date: 2022-11-14

Republicans in Harris County have decried voting issues that occurred on Election Day, with many wondering whether the “voter suppression” that occurred was intentional.

"I’m tired of this crap going on in our county," says Harris County GOP Chair Cindy Siegel. "Voter suppression is when you can’t go into a poll or it’s not open, when you don’t have equipment that works, and when you don’t have the paper to record your ballot." [...] "We were trying to get historical polls placed, and we were told some of them were in the Spring Branch ISD area," says Siegel. "Senator Bettencourt's office reached out, and they were told they were never asked. I have to question, why does it appear in this day and age where everyone wants to talk about voter suppression, why does it appear that it's in Republican strongholds?"

Now Texas governor Greg Abbott (R) is calling for an investigation of the elections that occurred in the county that is home to Houston.

"I'm calling on the Secretary of State, the Attorney General's Office, and the Texas Rangers to initiate investigations into allegations of improprieties in the way that the 2022 elections were conducted in Harris County," Abbott said. "The allegations of election improprieties in our state's largest county may result from anything ranging from malfeasance to blatant criminal conduct." "Voters in Harris County deserve to know what happened," he added. "Integrity in the election process is essential. To achieve that standard, a thorough investigation is warranted."

x Integrity in the election process is essential.



Voters in Harris County deserve to know what happened. pic.twitter.com/SSDymmCJAO — Greg Abbott (@GregAbbott_TX) November 14, 2022

x I wholeheartedly support Gov @GregAbbott_TX calling for an investigation of Harris County Elections! This is the WORST Election Day ever by a major county elections department that I’ve seen in my LIFE! No ballots at poll means voter suppression @TXsecofstate @TXAG @TxDPS #txlege https://t.co/ykT1gMv7v8 pic.twitter.com/tF04z9Hyn2 — Team Bettencourt (@TeamBettencourt) November 14, 2022

But Harris County Democratic Party chair Odus Evbagharu made a statement in response to Abbott’s allegations.

We all know Abbott’s concern is not really the 2022 Midterm Election in Harris County. He’s got his focus on what’s next for him, and he’s hoping simply calling for an investigation will play out in his favor politically. It’s almost laughable that Abbott has demanded this investigation since he actually sent a team to oversee the Harris County elections last week. Was Abbott’s team ineffective? Will Abbott be investigating himself? Our biggest concern about this is that Abbott and other GOP state leaders are trying to criminalize election workers. These elections are run by volunteers who are civically engaged and actively participating in the political process, and under Abbott’s watch, election workers have been constantly under attack. Already, GOP State Rep. Andy Murr has pre-filed a bill trying to bump penalties for SB1 back up to a felony from the negotiated misdemeanor. All of these actions by the GOP could make election workers hesitate about volunteering in the future. It should be noted that in July, the Texas secretary of state’s office announced Harris County had been ‘randomly selected’ for an audit of the November election results. This latest call by Gov. Abbott seems redundant. Also, Gov. Abbott is acting like Harris County doesn’t examine elections after they occur, and that is simply not the case. The Elections Administrator always conducts a postmortem after an election and from that report, processes are updated and streamlined and corrections in process are made. Let’s see what the EA’s report details and learn how issues flagged will be addressed in the future.

In addition, Cliff Tatum, the Elections Administrator for Harris County, had this to say:

The Harris County Elections Administrator’s Office is fully committed to transparency regarding the processes and procedures implemented for the November 8, 2022, Midterm Elections. As already established, Harris County has been selected to participate in the 2022 SOS Audit and has been in communication with the SOS Auditing team regarding this election. The office is currently completing vote tabulation of provisional ballots in reparation for the statutorily required manual count that must occur before canvassing. The last day to Canvas is November 22, 2022. The office is currently reviewing issues and claims made about Election Day and will include these findings in a post-elections report to be shared promptly with the Harris County Elections Commission and the County Commissioner Court.

The Texas Civil Rights Project also responded to Abbott’s calls.

Today’s announcement is precisely what Texas civil rights organizations were worried about when we called for the Department of Justice to send federal monitors to Harris County. After the Secretary of State singled out Harris County before the election, the Governor now calls for an investigation of that county while the county finalizes election results – even though voters in other counties across the state experienced many of the same issues. Launching a criminal investigation of election issues would be an especially clear and alarming escalation of the State’s campaign against the voters of Harris County – the most diverse county in Texas. The State has proven time and time again that it is a bad-faith actor when it comes to protecting voters. The Governor should rescind his self-interested call for investigations, and allow election officials to do their jobs and finalize the election results.

Greg Abbott won by double digits statewide in his recent election, and he lost Harris and Fort Bend counties by only single digits. But it’s not enough for Abbott and the rest of the Texas Republican Party. Although Democrats nationwide have performed better than expected during the recent midterms, with election deniers losing in battleground states, the fight to preserve American democracy is far from over, and you can thank people like Greg Abbott and Paul Bettencourt for escalating illiberal attacks toward democratic elections.

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[1] Url: https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2022/11/14/2136147/-Texas-governor-Greg-Abbott-R-wants-an-investigation-over-midterm-elections-in-Harris-County

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