Legislation set to pass the Texas Senate would give Gov. Abbott’s appointed Secretary...
The state Senate has already given initial approval to Senate Bill 1993 with a final vote possible today. The legislation would give Abbott’s appointed Secretary of State authority to order an entirely new election in Harris County if the county ever again runs out of paper at 2 percent or more of its polling sites for over an hour.GOP leaders say Harris County's ballot shortage was targeted at Republicans. Here's what the data says.
“You want to vest in a political appointee the ability to make a decision as to whether or not an election should be overturned and reheld,” State Sen. Royce West, D-Dallas, asked Middleton during a debate in the Senate on Monday.Texas Republicans say lowering the bar for overturning elections is bad policy. So why did they try?“I would disagree about overturning, you’re calling a new election so voters get to vote again,” Middleton said. “You get the opportunity to vote again.
Under current laws, the only way to get a new election in Texas is by turning to the courts. After the November election, 22 Harris County Republican candidates filed lawsuits challenging the election results. One case has already been tossed; the others are still pending. Harris County was a Republican stronghold as recently as 2014. But since then, Democrats have won the majority of county commission seats, the county judges office and swept nearly every judicial seat. Statewide candidates like Abbott, Sen. Ted Cruz and Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick, who all have deep ties to Harris County, won the county in 2014. But all three have lost the county in recent years, narrowing the margins in their statewide re-elections.
“You’ve got a bill directly targeting Harris County, and you’ve got problems in your own damn district in Galveston — major problems,” Miles said.
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