Gregg Abbott, the Republican Governor of Texas, has officially called for an investigation into allegations of election problems in Harris County.
According to a Monday press release, Abbott said that voters in Harris County were “frustrated by confusion and delays, including missing keys, insufficient paper ballots in Republican precincts, staffing problems, and more” during Tuesday’s election.
“I’m calling on the Secretary of State, the Attorney General’s Office, and the Texas Rangers to initiate investigations into allegations of improprieties in the way that the 2022 elections were conducted in Harris County,” Abbott wrote.
Harris County is Texas’s most populous county, and a Democratic stronghold where Republicans spent millions this year and received limited results.
Abbott explained that the allegations surrounding the election in Harris County may rise to the level of “blatant criminal conduct” in his statement.
“The allegations of election improprieties in our state’s largest county may result from anything ranging from malfeasance to blatant criminal conduct,” said Abbott.
“Voters in Harris County deserve to know what happened,” wrote Abbott on Twitter. “Integrity in the election process is essential.”
He declared, “To achieve that standard, a thorough investigation is warranted.”
Integrity in the election process is essential.
Voters in Harris County deserve to know what happened. pic.twitter.com/SSDymmCJAO
— Greg Abbott (@GregAbbott_TX) November 14, 2022
While Harris County is often the focal point of Republican frustration for the tactics employed by the local Democratic Party, the 2022 election saw Republican officials cry foul.
According to local reports, GOP leaders in Harris County on Election Day “received numerous reports of polling locations not set up, machines and scanners broken, and the biggest complaint – the lack of ballot paper.”
???? WATCH: Blatant Election Intereference in Harris County
• no paper ballots at polling locations beginning at 7:30am
• polling locations having to wait HOURS for the paper ballots.
• Hour long wait times for calls to elections department pic.twitter.com/DTQrgMxYeM— Merissa Hansen (@merissahansen17) November 11, 2022
The Republicans suggested that the irregularities could have been intentional, as most of the issues took place in Republican strongholds.
Out of 20 polling locations that ran out of ballot paper, 19 were reportedly located in deep-red Republican areas.
“I’m tired of this crap going on in our county,” said Harris County GOP Chair Cindy Siegel.
“Voter suppression is when you can’t go into a poll or it’s not open, when you don’t have equipment that works, and when you don’t have the paper to record your ballot.”
❗️WATCH: Harris County GOP lists out all the anomalies on Election Day that specifically occurred in Republican stronghold polling locations pic.twitter.com/95HC7t5tRg
— Merissa Hansen (@merissahansen17) November 10, 2022
“We were trying to get historical polls placed, and we were told some of them were in the Spring Branch ISD area,” said Siegel.
“Senator Bettencourt’s office reached out, and they were told they were never asked,” he went on, “I have to question, why does it appear in this day and age where everyone wants to talk about voter suppression, why does it appear that it’s in Republican strongholds?”
“We have to have confidence in our elections,” said Harris County GOP legal counsel Andy Taylor.
“We want to make sure that every vote counted is legal, and make sure every vote that shouldn’t be counted is not in the count. And the way the election was handled makes that hard to do.”
This news and commentary by Andrew White originally appeared on Valiant News.
