Election monitors reveal no cases of voter discrimination at polls in Harris County, DOJ says

HOUSTON, Texas (KTRK) -- The issue of voting rights has been a contentious topic in the state of Texas for years. That's why several organizations and agencies said they've been monitoring Tuesday's election for any voters who might feel victim to discrimination at the polls.

A recent piece of controversial Texas voting legislation is Senate Bill 1, which passed in 2021. It banned overnight early voting hours and drive-thru voting, tightened up voting-by-mail rules, and set new criminal penalties for voter assistance.

The Republican-led bill came from unsubstantiated security concerns after Donald Trump lost his re-election bid in the 2020 presidential race. Democrats argued conservatives were creating laws for problems that don't exist and would make it harder for communities of color to vote.

The U.S. Department of Justice appointed two attorneys to oversee any complaints in the Southern District of Texas on Election Day about voting rights concerns, threats of violence to election officials, or election fraud. Any reviews would take place in consultation with DOJ headquarters in Washington.

"Federal law contains special protections for the rights of voters and provides that they can vote free from interference, including intimidation, and other acts designed to prevent or discourage people from voting or voting for the candidate of their choice," according to a press release from the DOJ.

As of Tuesday evening, a spokesperson with the DOJ's Southern District of Texas said its office hadn't received any reports of voter disenfranchisement.

READ MORE: The fight for voting rights: Has the US actually made progress when it comes to equity in voting?

Representatives from the ACLU Texas, Common Cause Texas, National Lawyers Committee, and Disability Rights Texas joined the Texas Civil Rights Project (TCRP) at their Houston office all day Tuesday to field calls for their voter help hotline.

Some of the issues they watched out included voters who were turned away at the polls, registered to vote but didn't have their name on the roll, experienced issues with their photo ID, witnessed unlawful conduct, had their mail-in ballot rejected, or had their use of a provisional ballot denied.

As of 4:30 p.m., TCRP said they received 32 tickets from voters in Harris County. But they were mostly about poll locations opening late and machine issues from the morning, which advocates said are standard issues during every election cycle.

"It's been a pretty smooth election so far. The constitutional amendments are maybe not as exciting to folks as a presidential or gubernatorial race. But we are seeing people really engaged, and I think that's a great sign for 2024," Emily Eby French, senior election protection attorney for the Texas Civil Rights Project, said.

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