HOUSTON — In the wake of the issues that came up during last year's election, Houston business owner and philanthropist, Jim McInvale filed a lawsuit against the Harris County Elections Administrator’s Office over the release of election records.
McIngvale, along with media consultant Wayne Dolcefino, held a news conference announcing the details of the suit on Tuesday, a day after the lawsuit was filed.
The suit was filed because they said they want to know details about what happened during the November 2022 election.
McInvale said that despite his political endorsements last election, the lawsuit wasn't filed over politics, but about transparency.
The 20-page lawsuit claims the Harris County Elections Administrator’s Office is withholding documents they believe would shed light on some of the problems that occurred during the 2022 general election, including shortage of paper ballots, malfunctioning voting machines and staffing shortages.
Dolcefino said he and McIngvale submitted requests for records from Election Day, including detailed copies of Harris County Elections Administrator Clifford Tatum's phone records, emails, and documents detailing maintenance issues with voting machines, but they said they were denied by the elections administrator’s office citing pending lawsuits and a state audit.
"Harris County voters have a right to know right now, right now, what went wrong," Dolcefino said.
"This isn't about political parties. It's about the election process,” Mcingvale said. “We want to make the election process fair for everybody because we firmly believe every Texan should have a right to vote and their vote should be counted."
KHOU 11 reached out to the Harris County Elections Administrator’s Office for comment.
They provided the following statement:
"Since the lawsuits filed starting in November and more recently on Jan. 6, the elections administrator's office has and will continue to follow the law and Texas Election Code. The office has responded with transparency to two audit requests from the state and has released an assessment on the November 2022 election.
“The office has readily responded to public information requests not requiring documents subject to the litigation. Any request that involves information involved in litigation has been sent to the attorney general for an opinion, and both the Harris County GOP and Harris County Democratic Party are copied on these requests.
“According to the Public Information Act, the attorney general's office has 45 working days from the day after the request to respond. As of today, the office has not received an opinion on how to proceed with these particular public information requests.
“Any suggestion that the Harris County Elections Administrator's Office lacks transparency is false."
According to the attorney representing McIngvale and Dolcefino, the elections administrator’s office has 21 days to file an answer to the lawsuit.
