The alarm bells of voter fraud are ringing in Texas once again. Following a recent court decision invalidating an election result in Houston, Gov. Greg Abbot has resurrected the election malpractice claims.
However, several facts suggest that the governor could be raising a false alarm.
The Court Judgement
Previously, a Texas judge had found 1,400 illegal votes in a judicial election and ordered fresh polls. Harris County was one of the almost two dozen Counties whose election results were going through court scrutiny.
The election was a 2022 180th District Court Judicial race in the city of Houston. Judge David Peeples has ordered authorities to conduct fresh elections.
A Keenly Contested Battle
After the November 2022 election results were counted, Democrat candidate DaSean Jones had the upper hand with a meager margin of less than 450 votes.
His formidable opponent, Republican Tami Pierce, who wasn’t satisfied with the outcome, approached the court with reservations. Unsurprisingly, Pierce wasn’t the only runner-up contesting election results.
A Slew of Election Litigations
After the 2022 elections, a great number of Republicans who didn’t clinch victories approached the courts for redress. This large number of GOP-initiated litigations had their roots in the party’s highly suspicious view of elections, beginning with the 2020 presidential loss to Joe Biden.
In all, 22 Houston Republicans were in court over their election losses. Judge Peeples had upheld the results in 20 of these cases.
A Glimmer of Hope
Given the rate at which the judge endorsed the results, Pierce was probably surprised to hear the Judge’s verdict in his case. Judge Peeples considered the number of illegal votes in comparison to the margin of victory.
As a result, he canceled the election and called for another one. Now, Pierce has another chance at the polls – an opportunity to rewrite history. However, this judgment means more than that to Gov. Abbott.
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Resurrecting the Election Fraud Claims
Governor Abbott has seized the moment. The Republican governor, who is a close ally of Donald Trump and a fierce critic of President Biden, has cried out about alleged voter fraud in the elections.
The governor released a statement on X (formerly Twitter) claiming that voter fraud is particularly rampant in Houston. Abbott relies solely on the discovery of the 1,400 illegal Harris County votes to support his claim.
“Voter Fraud is Real”
In the governor’s words, “Voter fraud is real. Especially in Houston.” Leaning on the recent judgment and citing a Houston Chronicle report on the issue, he went further to write that “‘The court has found that 1,430 illegal votes were cast in the race for the 180th District Court.’”
“The Judge hearing the case ordered a redo of the election. We must end voter fraud.” It is, however, not an unusual allegation from a Republican.
The GOP and Voter Fraud Claims
Abbott is only one out of the scores of leading GOP figures who have parroted Donald Trump’s notorious election fraud allegations. Another fierce voter fraud complainant is Arizona Republican Senatorial candidate Kari Lake.
Following her 2022 election loss, Lake made headlines with her allegations, which she has been unable to prove sufficiently. Although there have been a number of confirmed cases, their gravity hasn’t matched the allegations.
Harris County as a Model Example
If you are searching for a case study to reveal the story of the Republicans’ voter fraud claims, Harris County is one. First, the 1,400 Harris County illegal votes, just like is usually the case, likely favor both the Democrat and Republican candidates.
The direction of the votes is pretty unclear. No one knows how much of these voided votes favored the Blue and Red candidates.
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How Did the Illegal Votes Come About?
Contrary to what Gov. Abbott’s alarm suggests, the illegal votes didn’t emanate from a deliberate attempt to rig the elections. This is the case in many other instances of voter fraud allegations across the country.
In fact, Judge Peeples confirmed that the canceled votes were due to issues related to residence. Many of the affected voters didn’t reside in Harris County, which was the arena of the elections.
Other Reasons
Apart from the residency-related issues, other reasons led to the illegal votes. Nine hundred eighty-three votes were voided for residency reasons. The majority of the rest became invalid due to the voters’ inability to provide sufficient voter identification before participating in the exercise.
The remaining 48 voided votes were canceled because the mail-in ballots didn’t have signatures. Also, some of them didn’t arrive before the stipulated deadline.
Capitalizing on Election Fraud Claims
Many analysts have predicted that Republicans will likely latch on to election fraud claims if President Biden defeats Donald Trump in the coming elections. They also believe that Trump is providing fuel to nationwide agitations from his supporters by claiming that the election systems are faulty.
Notably, Trump has never successfully proven that the cases of election malpractice have been enough to overturn his 2020 election loss.
Abbott’s Post Draws Comments
Abbott’s X post, which has received over half a million views, attracted almost two thousand comments. One of them urged him to “Start prosecuting and making examples out of all those involved.”
Another X user blamed him for not solving the issue. “It would be great if you tried to lead and propose some fixes, like eliminating voting machines and requiring voter ID for starters.”
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