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Alexandra Mealer and other Republicans are formally challenging election results in Houston [1]

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Date: 2023-01-08

"Like so many from California, we relocated to Houston [from Sacramento] in search of opportunity and a better quality of life." - Alexandra Mealer, who had support from the "Don't California My Texas" crowd

Alexandra del Moral Mealer, the Republican nominee for Harris County Judge in the recent 2022 midterm elections, has officially filed to contest the results after losing to incumbent Lina Hidalgo (D) by well less than 20,000 votes.

After reviewing all publicly available data, I have decided to file an election contest in light of the post-election assessment submitted by Harris County Election Administrator Clifford Tatum. It is inexcusable that after two months, the public is no further along in knowing if, and to what extent, votes were suppressed. Far from being a “success,” as the report characterizes, there were serious operational issues that occurred throughout Election Day that call into question whether the county’s failures denied voters their right to vote. The report culminates with the ultimate “dog ate my homework” excuse of the World Series parade being responsible for delayed openings and fails to solidify the number of polling stations that suffered from ballot paper shortages. Unlike those holding office, I do not have the weight of government behind me to investigate the matters with the gravity and effort that reports of voter suppression justify but I do have the ability to exercise my legal rights as a candidate. My decision to file an election contest is fundamentally about protecting the right to vote in free and fair elections. There aren’t a lot of things that Lina Hidalgo and I agree on but surely, we can both agree that it is un-American to suppress votes.

x After careful review and analysis of the facts available, I have decided to file an election contest.



Every Harris County voter should be deeply concerned about voter suppression and welcome full transparency to ensure free and fair elections. pic.twitter.com/VIwEkVpBEi — Alexandra del Moral Mealer (@alexmealer) January 6, 2023

Mealer was motivated by the issue of voter suppression. Her attorney, Elizabeth Alvarez, has spoken on the matter.

Our lawsuit is simply about voter suppression. There's a statistically significant number of people who had their polling locations constructively closed on election day because they showed up to vote and they were turned away. [...] We are going to use data scientists to model the various polling locations in an attempt to demonstrate that a statistically significant number of people was disenfranchised, and if a statistically large enough number of people were disenfranchised, then that election has to be done over.

Harris County did experience issues with the voting process, which can partly be attributed to short staffing as a result of people taking the day off after the Houston Astros won the World Series. This contrasts with the fact that the county had limited 24-hour voting and drive-thru polling places back in 2020. However, there is no culpable evidence that the election was stolen.

Brandon Rottinghaus, professor of political science at the University of Houston, explains while there are clear concerns about how Harris County runs its elections, there's no evidence of widespread fraud. "Proof is critical. Simply saying there was fraud or there was some kind of mistakes that got made is not enough. You have to be able to prove it was systematic, and, in some cases, you have to prove it was criminal. That's a hard thing to do and a pretty tall burden for challengers to the election," Rottinghaus said. He believes it is very unlikely the election would be overturned. "These are hard challenges to overcome. Once they've been set and certified by both the county and by the state, it's a real difficult prospect to be able to overturn them, so this effectively kind of a Hail Mary pass", he explained.

Christian D Menefee, the Harris County Attorney, responded to Mealer’s election contest.

This is a shameful attempt by a group of losing candidates who couldn't win the hearts and minds of Harris County voters and are now throwing nonsensical legal theories at the wall to see what sticks. Each of them should be deeply embarrassed, and these claims should not be taken seriously by the public. These losing candidates are finally laying bare what we all know to be true - for them, it's not about improving elections or making sure our elections are secure; it's about playing games with our democratic systems and refusing to accept the will of the voters. These election contests are frivolous attempts to overturn the votes of more than a million residents in the third largest county in the country. The county will now have to spend substantial resources handling these contests, time that could instead be spent serving the people of Harris County. Voters have moved on. Public servants have moved on. These losing candidates should move on too.

Mealer is not the only Republican candidate to undermine the legitimacy of the election results in Harris County. Michael May, the Republican nominee for Texas State House District 135, has filed an election contest, after losing to Democrat Jon Rosenthal by roughly 15 points. Other Republicans who contested their elections include a candidate for county district clerk and nine judicial candidates.

Similar to California counties like Orange and San Diego, Harris County has been Republican-leaning for an urban area, given that it voted for the Republican presidential candidate from 1968 to 2004, in addition to arch-conservative Barry Goldwater cracking 40 per cent in 1964 and Mitt Romney being less than 1,000 votes away from winning the county in 2012. (This, despite the city of Houston itself not having a Republican mayor since 1981.) And like these aforementioned counties, Harris County is experiencing a marked increase in both ethnic diversity and support for liberal Democrats, in contrast to the sordid history of racial strife that occurred within the past 40-100 years, not the least of which include the presence of the Ku Klux Klan.

DIARIST’S NOTE: The diary / article indeed has a KariLake tag, if only to define “Kari Lake” as the act of not accepting defeat despite a well-proven loss.

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[1] Url: https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2023/1/8/2145883/-Alexandra-Mealer-and-other-Republicans-are-formally-challenging-election-results-in-Houston

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