The integrity of the election process came into question again when Texas Officials reported discovering approximately 10,000 uncounted ballots in last week’s primary election, which led to a delay in the results.
The Office of Harris County Election Administrator Isabel Longoria disclosed the information last Saturday, announcing the Election Night count did not include approximately 10,000 mail-in ballots.
Longoria noted that approximately 6,000 Democratic votes and 4,000 Republican votes were not counted but will be added to final tallies.
“While the votes were scanned into our tabulation computer, they were not transferred and counted as a part of the unofficial final results as they should have been,” the Harris County Elections Office stated.
The Office cited the reason for the uncounted votes was a simple “oversite and told local news outlet KHOU-TV that officials “are focused on ensuring that every ballot cast is accounted for through this canvassing process.”
The Office added: “[We] will continue to be transparent in that process through our updates but as you can imagine it is most critical that everyone on our team stay focused and commit all of their time to the task at hand.”
Noting the scope of the error, the spokesperson noted: “We will be discussing [the matter] at commissioners court and that will be an opportunity for [all to receive an update] from our Office.”
Following the 2020 election, Texas enacted several election safeguards, particularly concerning mail-in ballots. According to The Epoch Times, officials note that these changes resulted in “thousands of mail-in ballots…[being] rejected across the state for not having new information.”
The Harris County Republican and Democratic party chairs expressed alarm at the disclosure there were uncounted ballots.
Harris County Democrat Chair Odus Evbagharu released the following statement:
“We share concern about the issues that occurred during the primary election. We expressed this concern when the initial problems were uncovered, and we’ve stayed consistent on our position. Press conferences will not change that.
“We called for a post-election review of all processes — there has not been any skirting of party responsibility, and we have been completely transparent in our desire to dig into the details of what went wrong and identify how to make corrections moving forward…”
KHOU-11 reported that Harris County GOP Chair Cindy Siegel said:
“Every voter regardless of party should be able to have confidence that their vote has been properly counted. Unfortunately, this is another example of the serious mismanagement of [Harris County Judge] Lina Hidalgo’s unqualified Elections Administrator. Isabel Longoria owes all Harris County voters an explanation,”
On Mar. 7, the Harris County GOP filed a lawsuit against Longoria and her Office for committing the “worst elections fiasco in Texas history.”
The Epoch Times reports the Harris County Elections Office hasn’t immediately responded to a request for comment.
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