Texas Republicans spent most of the 2021 legislative session focusing on election security — and this year, it’s a top priority for them again.
GOP leaders are discussing a range of election security measures, from higher penalties for voter fraud to broader power for the attorney general to prosecute election crimes. Many of them target Harris County, which Republicans have spent the past two years chastising for back-to-back elections blunders.
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“Harris County is the big problem,” said state Sen. Paul Bettencourt, a Houston Republican who plans to file close to a dozen election bills this legislative session. “You’ve got the nation’s third-largest county that has had multiple problems with multiple election officers, to the point where one had to resign, and the problem is that it’s too big a piece of the electorate to ignore.”
Harris County Elections Administrator Clifford Tatum did not respond directly to the criticism, but said the office supports any legislation that increases voter registration and access to voting.
“Right now, we are focused on implementing new systems to promote the efficiency with which our office runs elections,” Tatum said in a statement.
The county has been under pressure over its mishandling of the November election, including running out of paper at about two dozen polling locations, releasing early voting results before polls closed, inappropriately tossing damaged ballots and failing to train poll workers how to handle cases in which two-page ballots were not properly scanned into machines.
Earlier in the year, Harris was the only county in the state that couldn’t finish tallying its primary election results within the 24-hour deadline dictated by state law. Days after, the county reported it had failed to include about 10,000 mail ballots in its final vote count (those ballots did not impact election outcomes in close races).
The county also had technical issues, like malfunctioning machines and insufficient supplies. The episode led Isabel Longoria, the county’s then-election chief, to resign.
A report released in December by the secretary of state found that Harris County had not properly handled certain electronic voting records during the November election, but it said there was no evidence of widespread fraud.
Lawmakers are still debating how exactly to respond to the problems. Bettencourt said he’s considering a bill that would raise the charges for some voting-related misdemeanors, such as failing to provide election supplies.
He also questioned the existence of — and the accountability measures for — the election administrator position in Harris County. Longoria was the first, appointed under a newly created office in late 2020; Tatum was named as her replacement last July.
“That’s somebody that’s supposed to have better acumen and better results than elected officials, but the reverse has been proven to be true in Harris County,” Bettencourt said. “One of the things we’re going to have to explore is: Why aren’t the elected tax assessor-collector and the elected county clerk — which are, quite frankly, both Democrats — why are they not running the election, where there’s some public accountability?”
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Beyond Harris County, lawmakers are looking at a slate of statewide elections reforms, starting with returning the penalty for illegal voting to a felony instead of a misdemeanor. The Legislature lowered the punishment when it passed Senate Bill 1, but top Republicans — including Gov. Greg Abbott and Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick — have pushed to return it to the stiffer penalty.
Republican House Speaker Dade Phelan, whose chamber amended the bill to include the lower penalty, rejected the idea when it was first floated during a series of 2021 special sessions.
“This important legislation made its way through the House after several thoughtful amendments were adopted,” he said. “Now is not the time to re-litigate.”
SB1 also standardized voting hours across the state, cutting them in some places. In addition, it outlawed drive-thru and overnight voting, gave more power to partisan poll watchers and introduced new identification requirements for mail ballots and the applications for them.
The ID mandates prompted mass confusion during last year’s primary elections, causing the rejection rate for mail-in ballots to skyrocket from under 1 percent to about 12 percent. That figure fell to 2.7 percent during the November midterms.
State Rep. Jacey Jetton, a Richmond Republican, said he’s exploring legislation to facilitate that process, such as enabling election officials to check all identification numbers associated with an individual at the Texas Department of Public Safety. He also wants to review the system’s new online mail ballot tracker and ensure it’s working properly.
Republicans have also introduced bills to further investigate election fraud, to limit the state’s early voting period from two weeks to one, and to set earlier deadlines for handing in mail ballots. And some of them are hoping to give Attorney General Ken Paxton stronger authority to prosecute election crimes, after the state’s highest criminal appeals court ruled in 2021 that he could not unilaterally take on such cases.
Currently, Paxton can only get involved if invited by a district or county attorney, according to the court’s ruling. The decision led to an outcry from top Republicans, including Abbott and Patrick, who called for the case to be reheared.
Paxton encouraged his supporters to launch a pressure campaign and flood the court with calls and emails demanding, unsuccessfuly, that they reverse the decision. The move prompted a complaint to the State Bar accusing Paxton of professional misconduct for attempting to interfere in a pending case before the court.
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House Bill 678, introduced by state Rep. Keith Bell, R-Forney, would allow the attorney general to appoint a special prosecutor from a neighboring county, if the prosecutor with jurisdiction can’t or won’t take up an election fraud case.
State Rep. Bryan Slaton, R-Royse City, went a step further with House Bill 125, which would give the attorney general the authority to remove a district or county attorney if he or she chooses not to prosecute election crimes. County and district attorneys are generally elected by voters to four-year terms.
In explaining his bill, Slaton echoed Paxton’s concerns: that left-leaning local prosecutors will neglect or ignore election fraud cases for political reasons.
“By refusing to enforce our election laws, liberal prosecutors could usurp the rights of Texans to a free and fair election and would obstruct justice,” Slaton said in a statement. “HB 125 will ensure they uphold the laws of our great state, and give Texans peace of mind that those attempting to cheat in elections won’t be let off the hook.”
Jen Rice contributed reporting from Houston.