UNITED STATES NEWS

As electoral disputes mount, one Texas court case takes center stage

Jul 31, 2023, 9:11 PM

HOUSTON (AP) — Elections in Harris County, Texas, home to Houston, the state’s biggest city, are coming under the microscope this week as the Democratic stronghold faces unprecedented intervention from the state’s GOP-led Legislature.

Various problems in last November’s midterm elections will be center stage in a civil trial beginning Tuesday. Erin Lunceford, a GOP candidate who lost her bid to become a district court judge in Harris County is suing to throw out the election results and have the court order a do over.

Similar court challenges have become more common around the country following baseless conspiracy theories spread by former President Donald Trump and his supporters alleging the 2020 presidential election was stolen by President Joe Biden’s backers.

The Texas Legislature passed new laws this year eliminating Harris County’s top election office and permitting the state to take over more easily after a complaint is filed.

Lunceford’s lawyers allege she lost in part because of paper ballot shortages that targeted Republican voting locations. They also argue election officials made mistakes allowing illegal votes to be cast. Her opponent, Democrat Tamika Craft, won the election by 2,743 votes out of more than 1 million cast.

Craft’s lawyers and Harris County officials say there’s no evidence that ballot shortages or other problems prevented people from voting or that illegal voting took place.

Lunceford’s lawsuit is one of nearly two dozen similar ones filed by GOP candidates in Harris County who lost in November. Her lawsuit is the first that will go to trial.

“These are mistakes that cause doubt about the outcome,” Andy Taylor, one of Lunceford’s attorneys, said during a court hearing last week.

He said the lawsuit details 17 examples of election problems. In addition to the ballot shortage, other problems listed include mistakes in ballot scanning and with reviewing signatures on mail-in ballots.

Kevin Haynes, one of Craft’s lawyers, said Lunceford’s attorneys are using a “kitchen sink” approach to make numerous allegations that rely on “wildly speculative evidence.”

“Once they have finally at long last put their cards on the table, it is very clear they have no evidence,” Haynes said.

Election denialism is likely to make its way into the trial, which is expected to last two weeks and be decided by a judge. During a court hearing last week, Haynes said one of Lunceford’s experts has indicated “Biden stole the (2020) election.”

Elections in the nation’s third-most populous county — and one with large numbers of Hispanic and Black voters — have been scrutinized for several years now. Some polling locations on Nov. 8 opened late or had long lines due to problems with voting machines. During the March 2022 primary, there was a shortage of poll workers and about 10,000 mail ballots weren’t counted the day of the election.

A report released in July by the Alliance for Securing Democracy looked at Harris County’s November election as well as two other recent ones in counties in Arizona and Michigan. The organization found administrative mistakes were being used to help “erode faith in U.S. elections.”

“They want to take those mistakes and suggest without additional evidence that those mistakes are enough to justify overturning the results of an election,” said David Levine, one of the report’s authors and a former local election official in Idaho. He’s now a senior fellow with the German Marshall Fund’s Alliance for Securing Democracy.

“That’s a really dangerous place to be for a healthy democracy,” he said.

Brandon Rottinghaus, a political science professor at the University of Houston, said it’s going to be tough for Lunceford’s attorneys to show the alleged voting problems were enough to swing the election.

A victory in Lunceford’s case or the other lawsuits “would set the bar really high for how to run an election. I mean, elections are run by people and people make mistakes,” Rottinghaus said.

___

Follow Juan A. Lozano on Twitter: https://twitter.com/juanlozano70

United States News

FILE - Sen. James Lankford, R-Okla., speaks to media about Israel, Wednesday, Oct. 18, 2023, on Cap...

Associated Press

New US aid for Ukraine by year-end seems increasingly out of reach as GOP ties it to border security

A deal to provide further U.S. assistance to Ukraine by year-end appears to be increasingly out of reach for President Joe Biden.

49 minutes ago

Associated Press

Downpours, high winds prompt weather warnings in Northeast

NEW YORK (AP) — Parts of the northeast were bracing for a stormy night Sunday, with high winds and heavy rains bringing threats of flooding and power outages through the Monday morning commute. Flood watches were in effect in New York, New Jersey, Connecticut and southern New England through Monday. The National Weather Service said […]

4 hours ago

Associated Press

Woman arrested after driving her vehicle through a religious group on a sidewalk, Montana police say

BILLINGS, Mont. (AP) — A woman has been arrested after she drove her vehicle several times at or through a religious group demonstrating on a sidewalk, hitting and injuring one man, Montana police said Sunday. Genevienne Rancuret, 55, was pulled over by police in Billings on Saturday a few hours after the episode and taken […]

4 hours ago

Associated Press

Students and lawmakers gather at Philadelphia temple to denounce antisemitism

PHILADELPHIA (AP) — Students, lawmakers and religious leaders joined forces Sunday at a temple in Philadelphia to strongly denounce antisemitism on college campuses and in their communities. The gathering at Congregation Rodeph Shalom came one day after University of Pennsylvania President Liz Magill resigned amid criticism over her testimony at a congressional hearing. Magill was […]

5 hours ago

Associated Press

Illinois man who confessed to 2004 sexual assault and murder of 3-year-old girl dies in prison

CHICAGO (AP) — A man who confessed to the 2004 sexual assault and murder of a 3-year-old Illinois girl has died in a state prison, according to state records. Scott Eby, 52, an inmate at the Menard Correctional Center, died Thursday, according to an online inmate notification system. The death of Riley Fox, whose body […]

6 hours ago

Associated Press

Iowa man arrested in the death of a Nebraska priest

OMAHA, Neb. (AP) — A man has been arrested in the stabbing death of a Catholic priest who was attacked over the weekend in a church rectory in a small Nebraska community, authorities said. The Rev. Stephen Gutgsell was assaulted Sunday “during an invasion” of St. John the Baptist Catholic Church in Fort Calhoun, Nebraska, […]

9 hours ago

Sponsored Articles

Follow @KTAR923...

Valley residents should be mindful of plumbing ahead of holidays

With Halloween in the rear-view and more holidays coming up, Day & Night recommends that Valley residents prepare accordingly.

...

Dierdre Woodruff

Interest rates may have peaked. Should you buy a CD, high-yield savings account, or a fixed annuity?

Interest rates are the highest they’ve been in decades, and it looks like the Fed has paused hikes. This may be the best time to lock in rates for long-term, low-risk financial products like fixed annuities.

Follow @KTAR923...

The 2023 Diamondbacks are a good example to count on the underdog

The Arizona Diamondbacks made the World Series as a surprise. That they made the playoffs at all, got past the Milwaukee Brewers in the NL Wild Card round, swept the Los Angeles Dodgers in the NLDS and won two road games in Philadelphia to close out a full seven-game NLCS went against every expectation. Now, […]

As electoral disputes mount, one Texas court case takes center stage