The Harris County Republican Party filed a lawsuit Monday against the county’s elections administrator, Isabel Longoria, for what they call the “worst elections fiasco in Texas history.”
The lawsuit was filed after Longoria’s office confirmed over the weekend there were approximately 10,000 mail-in ballots that were not added to the unofficial Election Night count.
The Harris County GOP has consistently criticized Longoria and her team for what they said has been the most “egregious” and “mismanaged” election process to ever occur in the history of Harris County.
Some of the issues the GOP point out, according to their lawsuit, include:
Issuing of incorrect ballots to certain polling locations, preventing voters from being able to vote
Providing ballots on the wrong size paper
Failing to complete the counting of the ballots within 24 hours of the polls closing
Failing to deliver the required number of working voting machines and adequate suppliesHarris County Republican Party Chairman Cindy Siegel said they want Longoria, along with her management team, to resign or be fired. The GOP also wants independent oversight of the next three upcoming elections.
See here for the background. The lawsuit is embedded in the story – it asks for between $100K and $250K in damages, which I presume is recovering their cost for the election. The plaintiffs ask for monetary relief and essentially for the elections office to comply with the state’s electoral code with regard to counting votes and publishing the results. I’m not sure where the “independent oversight of the next three upcoming elections” comes from, though I should note that I just skimmed the complaint, I didn’t read it thoroughly.
According to the Chron, there’s a second lawsuit as well:
A second lawsuit, filed by Democratic and Republican primary candidates, also alleged poll workers were not given proper supplies, and in some cases voting machines malfunctioned, leading to damaged ballots.
I don’t have any more information about that lawsuit.
How likely is this one from the HCRP to succeed? I have no idea. As noted before, I don’t think much of any legal complaints the local GOP has made, as they have been a lot of hot garbage lately. But there have definitely been issues with this election, and you never know what can happen in a courtroom. It won’t surprise me if this gets kicked on a motion to dismiss, it won’t surprise me if it bounces around the system for years, and it won’t surprise me if the Republicans recover at least some of their costs for the election, more likely via settlement.
Longoria needs to fall on her sword and resign today. She’s had enough time to show she is competent, and has failed miserably. If she doesn’t resign, she needs to be fired.
When the GOP (and the Dems) start paying for the entirety of and managing their own primary elections and stop fleecing the tax paying independent and non-majority party voters, then I’ll have some sympathy.
Until that time shut the hell up.
Longoria has resigned
Effective July 1
Without the benefit of having seen the lawsuit papers …
two thoughts:
First, if the departure is only effective July 1 (as opposed to immediately), will it make a difference whether she is a party or no-longer-party witness? And is anyone seeking mandamus relief? How would that work when the target for mandamus is the responsible official in charge and is no longer that official? Would it be appropriate to just substitute the successor in office?
Second, things might have gone better if Chris Hollins has stayed on the job, or gotten reassigned to the new Election Admin position.