The survival of liberty and our way of life here in Texas is in question. Over the past two and a half years we’ve not only seen a re-emergence of the government overreach we saw during the Obama years, but a mad rush toward the Marxist/globalist agenda that is completely eroding whatever semblance of sovereignty enjoyed by the states in this Union.
Recently, we highlighted the truth that our Legislature has yet to secure our border or protect Texans from the return of vaccine/mask mandates. This week, we will focus on the failure of the Texas House to secure our elections.
A preliminary findings report of the November 8th, 2022 general election highlights a number of issues experienced in Harris County during the election. The critical races in Harris County were only separated by a few thousand votes.
Not only do we have issues from within the state, but the Federal Government is also intent on hijacking the rights of the states and preventing them from ensuring that their elections are secure. On August 17, the US District Court for the Western District of Texas struck down portions of SB1 (signed by the Governor in 2021), declaring that Texas must accept mail-in ballots even if the wrong voter identification was provided.
With this ruling, the rogue administration currently inhabiting the White House is rolling out the red carpet for massive mail-in ballot fraud in the 2024 election in Texas.
In March 2021, Rep. Mike Schofield filed HB4507, a “trigger bill” that would have split federal and state elections in response to egregious and unconstitutional Federal actions like this. Per the US Constitution, the powers of the Federal government are “few and enumerated,” and the states should be completely sovereign over the matter of ballot authenticity. By splitting Federal and state elections on different days, HB4507 would have done much to ensure that state elections remain secure even while Texas does legal battle with Washington on the procedure of Federal races. Sadly, after snaking its way through committee and calendars, HB4507 never made it to the floor for a vote.
This session, Rep. Steve Toth filed HB5234, which would have required:
- Shortened early voting
- Voting locations to be secured while not in use
- Enough ballots be available to all polling locations
- Ballots to be printed in Texas
- Chain-of-custody of ballots from vendors
- Video recordings of all aspects of elections including imagery of the ballots themselves
- County sheriffs to investigate all irregularities reported by election judges
- Printed physical poll lists and signatures required from every voter
- Cancellation of mail-in ballots before allowing voters to vote again
Unsurprisingly, this outstanding bill never got a hearing in the House Elections Committee. Nor did SB1039, which would have provided a civil penalty for failing to address reported election irregularities. While this excellent bill passed the Senate, Texas House Leadership chose to use the last days of session to impeach Attorney General Paxton and allowed this bill to die without a floor vote.
Sadly, while other Republican House reps supported HB4507, HB5234, and SB1039, our HD64 Representative did not.
Door-to-door, voters tell me that they are terrified that the elections will be manipulated by bad actors in 2024. They remember when COVID was used as an excuse for election laws to be illegally changed by bureaucrats and executives in 2020. They remember illegal drive-through polling locations in Harris County and hear the growing drumbeat to re-institute the COVID mandates that could again be used to justify these measures. For three years, they have been begging their Legislators to take bold steps to secure Texas elections.
Unfortunately, it appears clear that there is no appetite by establishment Republicans to rock the boat. HD64 needs bold conservative representation in the Texas House that will fight for secure and transparent elections. As your representative, I will fight to ensure that you can trust the process here in Texas.