A voter and her daughter solid a poll in Houston throughout the 2020 common election. New payments handed by Texas lawmakers goal how elections are run in Harris County, which is dwelling to Houston.

David J. Phillip/AP

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David J. Phillip/AP

A voter and her daughter solid a poll in Houston throughout the 2020 common election. New payments handed by Texas lawmakers goal how elections are run in Harris County, which is dwelling to Houston.

David J. Phillip/AP

HOUSTON — Harris County in Texas is an enormous and numerous county that has trended Democratic over the previous decade.

And within the just lately accomplished session of the Texas Legislature, Republican state lawmakers handed measures that particularly goal how elections are run in Harris County.

Two payments despatched to Gov. Greg Abbott on Monday would take away the county’s elections administrator place and permit for the secretary of state — an appointee of the governor — to supervise elections in Harris County, beneath sure circumstances.

Harris County has struggled to conduct elections in recent times. The then-elections administrator resigned final 12 months after points with the state main.

And the November common election was extra of the identical. Some polls in Democratic-leaning neighborhoods opened hours late. Others skilled malfunctioning machines. And then there have been greater than two dozen polling websites in Republican-leaning neighborhoods that have been pressured to quickly shut down as a result of they ran out of paper ballots.

“I believe, absolutely believe, it was on purpose,” mentioned Terry Wheeler, who served as a Republican election choose in Cypress, northwest of Houston. “I’ve never seen anything like this, the way that they blew us off over the phone and refused to get us paper ballots.”

Democrats largely swept the 2022 elections in Harris County. Houston Public Media carried out a five-month investigation of the county’s administration of these elections, which revealed numerous problems however no proof that the county had intentionally undersupplied polling websites in Republican-leaning areas. Nor did it decide that the variety of folks turned away at these websites would have considerably affected the result of most contests.

Nevertheless, Republicans on the state and county stage determined Harris County’s election system was damaged and wanted state intervention to repair it.

GOP state Sen. Paul Bettencourt of Houston was the writer of these two payments associated to his dwelling county that at the moment are on the governor’s desk.

“Senate Bill 1750 basically returns elections in Harris County back to the elected officials — the county clerk and the tax assessor — like it was before the establishment of the now-defunct elections administrator office,” Bettencourt mentioned.

Like many Republicans, Bettencourt holds the county’s appointed elections administrator, Clifford Tatum, accountable for the issues of Election Day 2022. He says the elected officers could be extra conscious of voters.

But then there’s SB 1933.

“[SB 1933] basically grants the secretary of state oversight under specific circumstances for Harris County elections, if necessary, through a complaint process established in the bill,” Bettencourt mentioned. In different phrases, it will permit the state to override, even take away, those self same elected officers.

Both payments have been amended after being filed to focus on counties with not less than 3.5 million and 4 million folks, respectively. That’s Harris County alone.

The county’s Democratic chief govt, Judge Lina Hidalgo, condemned the 2 measures.

“Harris County today finds itself grappling with the audacity of Republican state lawmakers, hell-bent on recklessly enhancing the election chances of one party by targeting the largest county in the state,” Hidalgo mentioned. “This sets a dangerous precedent and subverts elections in one of the most diverse counties in the nation — another step toward disenfranchisement in the name of ‘election reform.’ ”

County Attorney Christian Menefee, additionally a Democrat, mentioned, “We have a lot of elected officials, a lot of people who are voted into office to serve their community. Yet these bills target three Black elected officials in Harris County: the elections administrator, the county clerk and the tax assessor collector.”

Menefee mentioned the payments will not go unchallenged. “We’re suing the state of Texas to protect Harris County, to protect Harris County residents, to protect our public officials, and to stop the state from targeting us,” he mentioned.

The present elections administrator has taken steps to alleviate the issues which have plagued voting within the county.

But his job goes away, forcing the county clerk to scramble to supervise November’s common election, when Houstonians will select a brand new mayor.

Other payments: Illegal voting and ERIC

Texas lawmakers handed different election-related payments with statewide ramifications.

– House Bill 1243 would improve the penalty for voting illegally from a misdemeanor to a second-degree felony, on par with manslaughter and tried homicide. That would reverse a change made by legislators a few years in the past.

Katya Ehresman of Common Cause Texas has grave considerations about HB 1243, however she mentioned the measure wasn’t as dangerous as one other invoice the Senate tried to move, which might have punished an individual for voting illegally even when they did not notice they have been committing against the law by casting a poll. Both measures got here after a number of high-profile instances of people being arrested for voting while still on parole and never having had their voting rights restored but.

“This version that did pass [HB 1243], while horrible — insofar as it increases the criminalization of voting, and it ultimately will intimidate people from the process because of the threat of felony penalties — it at minimum doesn’t include that opened door of prosecutions of mistakes and confusion,” Ehresman mentioned.

– Senate Bill 1070 would search to finish the state’s participation within the Electronic Registration Information Center, or ERIC, a voter knowledge consortium that is been focused in sure corners by right-wing misinformation.