One day before Election Day, Houston officials were waiting for word on whether the U.S. Department of Justice would send inspectors to oversee its voting process.
On October 20, Harris County, TX officials, where Houston is located, requested federal election monitors from the DOJ’s Civil Rights Division. The request was sparked by the state of Texas saying it was sending its own election inspectors there during the midterms. The state’s extra layer of scrutiny was related to an examination of vote counts from the 2020 election sought by former President Trump.
Harris is Texas’ most populous county. Judge Lina Hidalgo, a Democrat who is the top official in the county, called the Texas government’s timing “suspicious” over its inspection plan.
The skirmish further spotlighted ongoing tensions between Republicans who hold power at the state level and officials in Harris County, which Democrats control.
President Biden won Harris County by 13 percentage points in 2020 while former President Trump won the overall state of Texas by 52%.
No credible evidence has emerged of widespread voter fraud from Texas’ 2020 post-election review, which Gov. Greg Abbott (R) ordered last year, at Trump’s urging, in the state’s four most populous counties.
