HARRIS COUNTY, TX (Covering Katy News) - A dozen Harris County Republicans are filing suit seeking a new election after specific polling locations ran out of ballots, had voting machine problems, and did not open on time. Among the locations that reportedly ran out of ballots was Katy's Taylor High School.
Voting locations that were not supplied with enough ballots were eventually resupplied but it took so long that the GOP says voters left before casting ballots. Quantifying how many people left and did not vote elsewhere is one of the challenges the lawsuit faces.
Some claim the problems were primarily in traditionally Republican areas, while others say the irregularities were systemwide. What is not in dispute is that the election had irregularities.
The deadline to file suit was yesterday, January 6, 2023. The most prominent challenger is Alexandra del Moral Mealer, who ran for County Judge, the chief executive of Harris County. She lost to incumbent Lina Hidalgo by two percentage points or about 18,000 votes out of roughly 1.1 million ballots.
The most recent problems in Harris County are not new. Former elections administrator Isabel Longoria resigned in 2022 following problems in the March 1 primary which included damaged ballots that delayed the reporting of results and voting discrepancies that initially left thousands of votes uncounted.
Mealer and the other Republicans waited for answers from the county before filing to contest the most recent election. This week she cited her frustration that the county has never explained why the election had problems with simple things like supplying enough ballots to certain precincts and opening on time.
“It is inexcusable that after two months, the public is no further in knowing if, and to what extent, votes were suppressed,” Mealer said. “There were serious operational issues that occurred throughout election day that call into question whether the county’s failures denied voters their right to vote.”
The Texas Tribune reported that other counties in Texas use a software package that allows elections administrators to track and quickly respond to election-day problems. However, the report says Harris County does not have such a system which makes it more difficult to produce a report detailing when, where and why there were problems.
A court will have to decide if the problems on election day were substantial enough to swing the results. About 30 percent of the voters cast ballots on election day. The legal challenges do not question early and mail-in ballot voting that accounts for 70 of ballots cast.
“Our lawsuit is simply about voter suppression,” said Elizabeth Alvares, attorney for the Mealer campaign. “There’s a statistically significant number of people who had their polling locations constructively closed on election day because they showed up to vote and they were turned away.”
Democratic Harris County Attorney Christian Menefee issued a statement denouncing the lawsuits.
“This is a shameful attempt by a group of losing candidates who couldn’t win the hearts and minds of Harris County voters and are now throwing nonsensical legal theories at the wall to see what sticks,” Menefee said.
Among the other Republicans who have filed challenges are nine criminal or civil judicial candidates; Chris Daniel, who ran for Harris County district clerk; and Mike May, who ran for Texas House District 13.