The Texas Senate has given the power to overturn elections in the state to one man, Republican Gov. Greg Abbott.
The bill which passed is aimed specifically at Harris County, which is home to the state’s most populous city, Houston, which is majority Hispanic and black.
HuffPost reports the move is unprecedented, even in state like Texas.
The legislation penalizes county officials for running out of ballot paper at some voting sites in the 2022 election, the Houston Chronicle reported. Still, more importantly, it gives Republican Gov. Greg Abbott “precedent-setting” power to undo election results.
The measure would give Abbott’s appointed secretary of state the authority to hold a new election in the county if it runs out of paper at 2% or more of its polling sites for more than an hour, the newspaper noted.
Harris County, it should be noted, votes largely Democratic, and voted 56% for Joe Biden in 2020. Both Abbott and Sen. Ted Cruz (R) also lost Harris County when they ran for reelection.
Sen. Royce West (D-Dallas) noted, “You want to vest in a political appointee the ability to make a decision as to whether or not an election should be overturned and reheld?”
And Harris County Attorney Christian Menefee said the bill was “about targeting the largest county in the state, which is led by people of color.”
The bill now goes to the Texas House, where it’s likely to pass, meaning that one man would have the right to tell voters in the state’s largest county that their ballots are not going to be counted.
