Insufficient paper ballots in GOP precincts among allegations against Harris County, Abbott says

HOUSTON, Texas (KTRK) -- Reports of longer than anticipated lines and delays, as well as claims of insufficient balloting materials, have led to not only the Texas governor calling for an investigation into Harris County's Election Day process, but also a lawsuit against the county's elections administrator.

Gov. Greg Abbott, who won a third term last Tuesday, cited voters frustrated by delays including missing keys, insufficient paper ballots in Republican precincts, and staffing problems.

"The allegations of election improprieties in our state's largest county may result from anything ranging from malfeasance to blatant criminal conduct," Abbott's office wrote in a statement. "Voters in Harris County deserve to know what happened. Integrity in the election process is essential. To achieve that standard, a thorough investigation is warranted."

The Harris County's elections administrator, Clifford Tatum, said his office will participate in a Texas Secretary of State Audit and has already been in contact with the auditing team regarding the election. Tatum also said his office is "currently reviewing issues and claims made about Election Day and will include these findings in a post-elections report to be shared promptly with the Harris County Elections Commission and the County Commissioner Court."

The video above is from a Nov. 9, 2022, report on the day after Election Day.

In the immediate wake of Abbott's call, the Harris County Republican Party filed a civil lawsuit against Tatum.

The party claims, among several issues, 23 polling locations, most of them in GOP strongholds, were without paper, prompting voters to be turned away. Party officials did not offer proof of who the voters were.

On Election Day in Harris County, there were multiple problems with voting machines, which ushered in multiple lawsuits against the elections administrator by voter advocacy groups, including the Texas Organizing Project and the Texas Civil Rights Project, to allow the county's polling places to stay open for an hour past the 7 p.m. closing time.

PREVIOUS STORY: Election Day 2022: Polling locations report minor issues delaying voting

A judge granted a temporary restraining order, allowing provisional ballots to be cast during the extra hour. Later on the same evening, the Texas Supreme Court ruled those votes, which the elections administrator estimated to be about 2,000 total, would not count towards the Election Day tally, and Tatum said they would be kept separate from the other ballots pending further instruction from the Secretary of State's office.

The Harris County GOP, though, alleges Tatum and those groups were part of an "unholy alliance" to collude.

In the days following the election, the county became the last in Texas to complete its ballot count. Tatum's office also defended itself from allegations from the Harris County Republican Party, which accused the county of filing the lawsuits to keep polling places open.

For its part, the Texas Civil Rights Project said the investigation is "precisely" what civil rights organizations in the state were worried about when it called for the U.S. Department of Justice to send federal monitors to Harris County.

"After the Secretary of State singled out Harris County before the election, the Governor now calls for an investigation of that county while the county finalizes election results - even though voters in other counties across the state experienced many of the same issues," Hani Mirza, the TCRP's Voting Rights Program director, said in a statement. "Launching a criminal investigation of election issues would be an especially clear and alarming escalation of the State's campaign against the voters of Harris County - the most diverse county in Texas. The State has proven time and time again that it is a bad-faith actor when it comes to protecting voters. The Governor should rescind his self-interested call for investigations, and allow election officials to do their jobs and finalize the election results."

Late Monday afternoon, the Secretary of State's office acknowledged receiving information regarding "alleged improprieties in the conduct of election administration" in Harris County.

"Our office has referred that information to the Texas Attorney General's office and the Harris County District Attorney's office for investigation," the Secretary of State's office wrote in part, while also acknowledging the post-election audit that would happen simultaneously. "We will be collecting even more information to ultimately provide the public with greater clarity on the root causes of the issues witnessed in Harris County on Election Day."

ABC13's Pooja Lodhia has facts on this story on her Facebook,Twitter and Instagram.