HARRIS COUNTY, Texas — Harris County Attorney Christian D. Menefee, Harris County Judge Lina Hidalgo, and Houston Mayor Sylvester Turner sent a joint letter to the United States Department of Justice Civil Rights Division requesting that federal monitors be sent to Harris County for the November 2022 election.
This comes as a letter sent by statewide elected Republicans accused the county of “chain of custody” issues in the 2020 election.
The letter from the Secretary of State’s office came just days before early voting begins.
Judge Hidalgo said the state did this “potentially in an attempt to sabotage county efforts.“
Hidalgo, a Democrat, also said the timing of the election letter “is at best suspicious “ with voting beginning soon.
She added that it could open the “door to possible inappropriate state interference in Harris County’s elections.”
“Harris County did everything humanly possible to make it easy for people to vote," Commissioner Rodney Ellis, a Democrat said. “It was a transparent process, and then, after the presidential race, the ‘big lie’ started.”
The state said in the letter that they have identified 14 locations where chain of custody documentation is lacking.
Additionally, for this upcoming election, the secretary of state will send inspectors to monitor vote counting, which is a common practice, as well as a task force from the Attorney General’s Office.
“The intent is to try to suppress the vote or anything that would cast a cloud over what goes on in Harris County. Clearly, there’s the assumption that there will be a record turnout,” Ellis said.
While Democrats are raising concerns about the state’s effort, Republicans say they’ve warned Democratic leaders about the election issues.
“It’s not a surprise that the Secretary of State has had significant concerns with what goes on in Harris County," Republican Commissioner Tom Ramsey said. “I’ve been expressing those for over a year now.”
Ramsey, who said he’s not been briefed on the upcoming election, said the issues should be addressed without the politics.
“The previous elections administrator was asked to resign, so there are concerns there. That’s not being an election denier, that’s trying to fix the problem rather than just talk politics,” Ramsey said.
However, the state’s actions have sounded alarm bells for Democrats who are calling on the justice department to beef up state monitoring.
“This ‘audit’ started with former President Donald Trump calling on Governor Abbott to audit the 2020 election, and now it has led to the state sending a ‘task force’ and ‘inspectors’ to oversee our elections,” said Harris County Attorney Christian D. Menefee. “We’re going to grant them the access the law requires, but we know state leaders in Austin cannot be trusted to be an honest broker in our elections, especially an attorney general who filed a lawsuit to overturn the 2020 presidential election. We cannot allow unwarranted disruptions in our election process to intimidate our election workers or erode voters’ trust in the election process. As the County Attorney, I will be at central count on election night, ensuring outside forces do not interfere with our elections. I hope the Department of Justice will be there too.”
The mayor of Harris County’s largest city, Houston, said the move should be challenged.
“What is being done by the state attorney general in the secretary of state is highly suspect coming just a few days before early voting starts, so come on now,” Mayor Sylvester Turner, a Democrat, said.
The Secretary of State's Office gave KHOU 11 the following statement in response:
"The suggestions by Judge Hidalgo, County Attorney Menefee and Mayor Turner about the role of state election inspectors is completely false and a cynical distortion of the law – and the truth – in an attempt to mislead voters, members of the public, the press and the U.S. Department of Justice. The Texas Secretary of State’s office has sent election inspectors to Harris County every year, and have never before seen a request for the Department of Justice to ‘monitor the monitors.’ This request is based on a completely false premise and misunderstanding of Texas Election Law, and is being used to spread false information about the actual duties of our election inspectors – dedicated public servants who will be present in Harris County to observe only and to ensure transparency in the election process from beginning to end."