Remember months ago when we told you a voter fraud investigation was happening in Harris County?
Remember when Democrats said it would never amount to anything?
According to the Texas Attorney General’s Office, Harris County did not follow proper procedures in creating a new Office of Elections Administrator and subsequently appointing Isabel Longoria, a former staffer for State Senator Sylvia Garcia (D-Houston,) to fill that role.
In a letter sent to the Harris County Attorney last week, Special Counsel for the attorney general Kathleen Hunker writes that the county failed to follow at least two sections of Texas Election Code that require notifications of progress to be provided to the Secretary of State’s Office.
Consequently, both the creation of the office and the appointment of Longoria are null and void, and Hunker has instructed the county to rescind the appointment and take corrective action within 14 days. If the county fails to take action, the attorney general will seek legal remedies.
Last July, Democrats on the Harris County Commissioners Court overruled objections from both sides of the political aisle to create the new position for the administration of future election functions.
Previously, those duties were divided between two elected officials: the Tax-Assessor-Collector & Voter Registrar, and the County Clerk. Republicans in opposition to the move were joined by Ann Harris Bennet, a Democrat who was elected Tax Assessor-Collector & Voter Registrar in 2016. Bennet has stated that election officials should be more directly accountable to voters.
In laying out the process for establishing the new office, the commissioners court had agreed to first wait for a study that detailed the budget, facilities, equipment, and personnel needed to maintain the office. Although commissioners received and approved the study in August of 2020, the county failed to notify the secretary of state, and according to Hunker, the state only learned of the study’s existence and approval via news reports.
Harris County Judge Lina Hidalgo speaks during an interview in Houston, Texas, U.S., on Tuesday, Dec. 10, 2019. Houston-area residents should follow stay-at-home guidelines that were discontinued weeks ago to cope with a resurgence in Covid-19 cases and hospitalizations, Hidalgo said. Photographer: Sharon Steinmannn/Bloomberg via Getty Images