Texas Secretary of State Jane Nelson released a preliminary audit of the 2022 elections in Harris County that indicates many issues might have affected the various outcomes.
As reported by The Dallas Express, the recent Harris County elections were beset with problems, including a failure to deliver enough ballots to Republican-leaning voting precincts, which allegedly could have kept hundreds, if not thousands, from voting.
The secretary of state has been conducting an audit of the events. She released the preliminary report on Thursday.
“Harris County clearly had multiple failures conducting the election and violated election law for estimating needed ballot paper,” Secretary Nelson remarked in a press release. “Mistakes like these led to a poorly executed election which left many Harris County residents frustrated and may have prevented them from voting.”
“It is important to talk about these issues now in order to address them before the 2024 election cycle,” she added.
The report itself, 147 pages in total, showed that Harris County claimed to have 9,000 more voters on its rolls than the state’s database reflected. Additionally, there were irregularities in mail-in ballots and possible violations of election law in the distribution of ballots to in-person voting locations. Furthermore, nearly 30% of all polling locations failed to complete necessary paperwork.
Sen. Paul Bettencourt (R-Houston), who has been a long-time election integrity advocate, reacted to the audit, saying, “The SOS Election Audit recognizes the obvious problems with Harris County’s November elections that lead to legislative changes, SB 1750, eliminating the Elections Administrator and returning elections to the elected County Clerk and the Tax Assessor-Collector.”
“Having 9K more voters than were reported to the state system along with 3.6K more ballots sent out to voters but not reported to the state system are serious problems,” he continued. “Secretary Nelson’s report also recognizes the obvious huge problem with ballot paper distribution not complying with state law.”
“This lead to a disruption in the whole process and inadequate supplies at polling locations,” Bettencourt added. “Basically, the County Government’s Election Administrator left 3 million sheets of ballot paper in the warehouse and didn’t get enough ballots to the polls, resulting in voter suppression of thousands of votes!”
Following the issues with the most recent county-level elections, the Texas Legislature passed a law that abolished the elections administrator position in Harris County, forcing local elected officials to assume the responsibility of running the elections.
According to KHOU 11, Harris County Clerk Teneshia Hudspeth, who will now run elections in the county, said in a statement, “The Harris County Clerk’s Office is actively working with the Texas Secretary of State’s Office to find solutions to the issues cited in the audit of the November 2022 Election.”
“Beginning September 1, I began reviewing and addressing every aspect of the election process and will continue to do so until procedures are in place that will ensure past issues are not repeated,” she continued. “In my fifteen years of working for two Republican and two Democratic County Clerks, I was part of election teams that conducted successful elections.”
“But the public should know that ‘successful’ isn’t the same thing as ‘flawless,’” she said. “The election office has never experienced a flawless election.”
“I look forward to working with the Secretary of State’s Office to ensure well-organized, transparent, and fair elections,” Hudspeth concluded. “There is plenty of work ahead for all of us and a great commitment on my part to the voters of Harris County.”