Texas bill allows secretary of state to overturn elections

Texas lawmakers superior a invoice this week that may permit the secretary of state, who’s handpicked by the governor, to overturn the outcomes of an election and order a brand new one within the state’s largest county.

The invoice targets Harris County, the most important within the state and the third largest within the U.S., which incorporates Houston and has a inhabitants of round 4.7 million. It will permit the secretary of state, at the moment Republican Jane Nelson, to order a brand new election within the county if 2 % or extra of the polling areas ran out of poll paper for greater than an hour.

Written to use to counties with a inhabitants over 2.7 million, which solely applies to Harris County within the state, the invoice follows criticism by Republican lawmakers over polling points within the county within the 2022 midterm elections. It handed the state Senate on Tuesday, and now should be thought-about within the Home.

Democratic-leaning Harris County confronted quite a lot of difficulties within the midterm elections, together with technical and staffing points. A Houston Chronicle investigation discovered that 20 polling areas ran out of paper, and simply over half of the affected polling areas have been in Republican-leaning areas. It concluded that it was not attainable to understand how many individuals have been unable to vote because of the points.

Democrats edged out a carefully watched contest for Harris County choose, the best place within the county, in November. Harris County Decide Lina Hidalgo (D) defeated Alexandra del Ethical Mealer (R), a West Level graduate and ex-Military captain, by lower than 20,000 votes after the GOP spent closely to unseat Hidalgo.

Following the elections, Gov. Greg Abbott (R) referred to as for an investigation into the problems within the county. The voting points are actually the topic of a lawsuit within the state.

–Up to date at 11:19 a.m.