Texas launches review of 2020 election, hours after Trump call
Texas’ secretary of state office announced it had launched a review of the 2020 election in four of the state’s largest counties on Thursday evening, hours after former President Donald Trump sent an open letter to GOP Gov. Greg Abbott demanding one.
The secretary of state office said a “full and comprehensive forensic audit” had begun in Dallas, Harris, Tarrant and Collin counties. It was not immediately clear what the exact process of the review would be. “Forensic audit” is not a well-defined term among election experts, but Trump and his supporters have latched on to it in an effort to further his lies about his electoral loss in 2020.
The office did not release any further details about the process, other than it expected the Legislature to provide funds for it. President Joe Biden carried Dallas, Harris and Tarrant last November, while Trump carried Collin en route to his statewide win.
“Donald Trump ordered Gov. Abbott to audit the 2020 Texas election and, like clockwork, TX just initiated an audit of Harris County voters,” Harris County’s Chief Executive Lina Hidalgo, a Democrat, wrote in a tweet. “These fake audits are an affront to all voters, & pure pandering to the kinds of extremists that stormed our Capitol.”
Texas currently does not have a permanent secretary of state. The position, which is appointed by the governor and confirmed by the state Senate, is currently vacant, with Joe Esparza, a former aide for Abbott, overseeing the office on an interim basis. The secretary of state’s office did not immediately respond to a series of questions from POLITICO, including for details of the process and who will be conducting the review.
The announcement comes hours after Trump publicly released a letter to Abbott, whom he has already endorsed in his 2022 reelection bid. In the letter, Trump advocated for a piece of legislation that would allow candidates and party officials to kick off an audit in the state.
“Governor Abbott, we need a ‘Forensic Audit of the 2020 Election' added" to the agenda of the in-progress special session, Trump said in his letter, which was released by his leadership PAC earlier on Thursday. “Let's get to the bottom of the 2020 Presidential Election Scam!”
Since his loss last November, Trump and his allies have been fixated on false claims of widespread electoral fraud. Supporters of the former president have sought to launch election reviews in states across the country that he lost, with efforts in various stages in Arizona, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin.
A long-delayed final report out of Arizona is expected to be delivered tomorrow. The review of the results in the state’s largest county, Maricopa, has been run under the authority of the Republican-controlled state Senate. The effort, funded by allies of Trump, has been besieged from the start by conspiracy theories and seemingly improvised procedures.
Arizona's Democratic secretary of state and Republican chief elections officer have publicly opposed the effort, and they and outside experts have rejected the “audit” label supporters append to it because of its shortcomings.
This, however, has not deterred Trump supporters, who have sought to export the process around the country.
The review in Texas also follows a brutal battle over the state’s election laws. Republicans passed a new election law in the state that adds new restrictions to voting, which came after state House Democrats launched a protracted walkout that delayed passage, but ultimately did not kill the effort. The new law added further restrictions to mail voting in the state, and targeted pandemic-era practices from Harris County, including 24-hour and drive-in early voting.
That new law, SB 1, calls for the secretary of state to conduct “randomized audits” immediately after midterm and presidential elections, but lays out few parameters for how it is to be conducted, leaving that up to the judgment of the secretary of state’s office.