Now that “breaking,” formerly known as break dancing, was an official event in the Paris Olympic Games, planners of the 2028 pageantry in Los Angeles may want to consider marathon drum rolling as the next medal-worthy sport. That way, Texas Republicans might field a team representing their concept of a Lone Star Nation.
With Gov. Greg Abbott as drum major, Texas Republicans kept a drum roll going for 18 months about the 2022 general elections in Harris County, home to 2.5 million registered voters.
Countywide Democratic candidates for judgeships and other countywide officials virtually swept the elections, as has been the pattern since 2008. But the election was marred by ballot paper shortages, admitted short-staffing of the Harris County Elections Administration Office and other bureaucratic snafus.
Saying that “allegations of election improprieties in our state’s largest county may result from anything ranging from malfeasance to blatant criminal conduct,” Abbott called for investigations by the Texas Attorney General’s Office, the Texas Secretary of State’s Office and the Texas Rangers. He added later that “voter fraud is real, especially in Houston.”
Harris County GOP picked up the beat with a lawsuit alleging “multiple instances of ill-advised and illegal alterations of election procedures.”
More than 20 lawsuits were filed on behalf of Republican candidates seeking to nullify their defeats. (A single case succeeded and is on appeal; the others fizzled).
On Monday (Aug. 12), the Harris County District Attorney’s Office said Democratic DA Kim Ogg and the Texas Rangers would describe the next day a set of alleged theft and corrupted acts uncovered by the joint investigation of the 2022 election. The concert stage was set for drama.
Ogg explained the next day, however, that the probe found no evidence of election fraud, ballot manipulation, inaccurate vote counts, or anything else of the sort.
Ogg, who recently endorsed Republican Sen. Ted Cruz for re-election, delivered the news standing with Texas Rangers investigators.
Thud.
Instead, the 18-month investigation found that an Election Administration Office employee responsible for distributing ballot paper to polling places had allegedly bilked the county by simultaneously working a second full-time job. The employee’s lawyer said he is innocent.
The findings, or lack thereof, echoed the Secretary of State’s conclusions delivered months earlier. It found problems with ballot paper distribution but no politically motivated plot. Allegations to the contrary, there’d been no steal to stop.
