Harris County District Attorney Kim Ogg held a press conference on Tuesday to announce that a former election worker has been charged with six felonies related to the 2022 general election.
“Anytime that two or more affidavits are filed by citizens in the State of Texas complaining about an election violation, by law the district attorney is required to investigate. That is what happened in this election. Multiple affidavits were filed, sent to us immediately after the election, and we did what we always do. We called in an independent investigative agency — the Texas Rangers,” Ogg said.
Harris County’s election was marred by numerous issues, including long lines, disruptions from voting machine failures, and a significant shortage of paper ballots at polling locations, Ogg said, noting that a lack of paper ballots at some locations directly resulted in people not voting.
“We know this was a failure in terms of an election that the government has a responsibility to run effectively, ethically, and most importantly accurately,” Ogg said.
A criminal investigation determined that a former county elections employee was responsible.
“Defendant Darryl Blackburn, who worked in the now defunct elections administrator’s office, has been charged with six felony charges, five of them tampering with a document, one theft by public official,” Ogg said.
Blackburn had been specifically tasked with ensuring that enough paper ballots were distributed to all of the polling locations in Harris County.
Ogg said Blackburn did not do his job and made the public lose trust in the election process. While allegedly representing that his job as a county elections employee was his only full-time job, he maintained a second full-time job and purportedly lied on county timesheets.
“Much more importantly, he stole individuals’ right to vote. … That is the real cost, and it is priceless,” Ogg said.
She went on to note that hundreds of thousands of taxpayer dollars were spent on investigating Blackburn’s alleged crimes.
Ogg added that there was no evidence that Blackburn’s actions were intended to impact the outcome of the election.
“It boils down to incompetence and greed,” Ogg said, however, she noted that his actions did have consequences.
The 180th District Court, for instance, must have a new election next May. As previously reported by The Dallas Express, Gov. Greg Abbott and other state leaders called attention to alleged election fraud in that judicial race.
A Houston judge in May found that 1,430 votes in the 2022 180th District Court race were invalid. This called into question the race’s results since 450 votes separated the Democratic and Republican candidates, reported The Hill.