Sen. Paul Bettencourt, R-Houston, filed both bills to prevent election irregularities that occurred in Harris County over the last two election cycles from occurring again or from being replicated in other counties.
Bettencourt introduced the election reform bills after allegations of widespread fraud were made after the 2020 and 2022 elections in Harris County and numerous lawsuits were filed stemming from Democratic officials changing election management procedures.
SB 1750 eliminates the elections administrator position that Harris County illegally created, Attorney General Ken Paxton has argued, and returns the management of elections to an elected county clerk and tax assessor-collector.
After Democratic Harris County Commissioners created the elections administrator position and spent tens of millions of dollars overhauling the county's election system, at least 10,000 ballots weren't counted in the March 2022 primary election and the first administrator they hired was forced to resign.
In response to the bills passing, Harris County Attorney Christian Menefee, who maintains no widespread voter fraud has occurred, said, "Republican legislators are again targeting Harris County, singling us out to score cheap political points. This sets a dangerous precedent, and we all know the legislators in Austin won't stop here - this will lead to more attempts to remove local officials in the state's most diverse counties," without mentioning which local officials have already been removed.
Menefee said on Monday, "I want to be clear: this fight is not over. We are evaluating our legal options and expect to share more later this week. We cannot and will not allow the state to illegally target Harris County." State investigations have not only targeted Harris County, according to a recent state audit.
The Secretary of State's Forensic Audit Division performed a full forensic audit of the 2020 General Election in Collin, Dallas, Harris, and Tarrant counties.
https://www.thecentersquare.com/issues/elections/article_3fcb459a-f99a-11ed-8780-ef5e253266b9.html
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