UPDATE: The Travis County Republican Party has appealed to the Texas Supreme Court after the 3rd Court of Appeals dismissed the lawsuit as moot.
A lack of Republican election staffers, despite the county party having submitted over 900 names to the local election office, has caused the Travis County Republican Party to take drastic action.
According to a press release, the Travis GOP filed an emergency petition against the county elections division for refusing to staff polling locations with Republicans.
The filing alleges “the Travis County Elections Department ignored repeated requests from TCRP for polling location staffing, only delivering the information just four days before the start of early voting. The received information shows a severe lack of Republican presence at Early Voting and Election Day polling locations.”
According to the GOP, 24 percent of early voting locations have no Republican election judges, and 50 percent have no Republican election workers. For Election Day, 41 percent of locations lack any Republican poll workers.
The Texas Election Code requires polling locations to assign someone from the other major party as the alternate judge if they assign someone from one major party as the presiding judge.
“It is totally unacceptable that large portions of our county have no Republican election judges assigned, despite our providing far more than the number of available workers needed,” said Travis County GOP Chair Matt Mackowiak. “As long as I am TCRP chair, we will hold local government accountable when they violate our rights and risk election integrity. This is an egregious example, and we look forward to our day in court.”
Travis County Clerk Dyana Limon-Mercado’s office told KXAN Tuesday they are aware of the lawsuit and are working on a response. In the meantime, a spokesperson said, “Our office remains committed to administering an election that is accessible to all eligible voters. This is made possible through the dedication of our full-time staff and temporary election workers. We appreciate their hard work and service to Travis County.”
Texas Scorecard reached out for an update from Limon-Mercado’s office but did not receive a response before publication.
Late Friday, Mackowiak announced that the TCRP has appealed to the Texas Supreme Court after the 3rd Court of Appeals dismissed the case as “moot” but failed to notify the attorney who filed the petition as well as Mackowiak.
“The ‘mootness’ reason cited by the 3rd Court of Appeals can reasonably apply to Early Voting which ends today, but it cannot reasonably apply to Election Day, which is Tuesday. As long as I am TCRP chair, we will hold local government accountable when they violate our rights and risk election integrity. This is an egregious example, and we look forward to having our day in court,” stated Mackowiak.
This is not the first time conflict has arisen between the Travis County GOP and the county elections office.
In 2020, Republican poll watchers claimed the county used COVID-19 as a fig leaf to sequester them in a room where they were unable to oversee the vote-counting process.
Election day is next Tuesday, November 5.
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