Secretary Of State Announces Election Audits

In a two-sentence press release, the secretary of state’s office announced an audit of four Texas counties — Dallas, Harris, Tarrant and Collin — for the 2020 election.

The announcement came hours after former President Donald Trump called on Gov. Greg Abbott to add an election audit bill to the current special session of the Texas Legislature. Abbott has not responded thus far. A similar audit in Arizona’s Maricopa County recently ended and concluded Biden won that state’s most populous county, which provided him the winning margin there.

Trump won Texas by 5.6 percentage points in the 2020 election, although three of the four counties to be audited — Dallas, Tarrant and Harris — went for Biden. Officials from those counties told the Texas Tribune that “the development is an unnecessary partisan move aimed at sowing doubt in the results.”

The position of secretary of state has been vacant since the end of May, when Ruth Hughs resigned after the Texas Senate declined to take up her nomination.

Items Added to Special Session

Abbott last week added two agenda items to the special legislative session which began Sept. 20. Legislators will consider additional property tax relief, as well as a constitutional amendment that would allow courts to deny bail to people accused of violent or sexual crimes.

The bail bill has failed in previous sessions. Because it would calls for a constitutional amendment election, the bill requires two-thirds approval from both chambers to go forward.

In the current special session, legislators already are considering redrawing the state’s political maps as required every decade. Also under consideration is legislation restricting participation by transgender students in school athletics, plus legislation outlining how to spend $16 billion in federal COVID-19 pandemic funding.

Additionally, legislators are considering a bill that protects dogs from being chained without adequate shelter or space. Abbott vetoed a similar bill during the regular session.