Vulnerabilities in our nation’s election integrity that have been exposed in this year’s presidential election exist in Texas as well. The Texas Legislature must act to secure our elections to prevent our state from ending up in a possible future scenario of electoral chaos.
Election integrity is the top concern in America right now, and questions may haunt the final results. “It is an absolute shame that at this point, no matter who wins, the other side will not trust the outcome,” said Christine Welborn, director of election integrity with Direct Action Texas.
Project Veritas published an interview with someone who identified himself as a United States Postal Service employee in Michigan, claiming mail-in ballots received on November 4 were being marked as received the day before, then sent express to their destination. His understanding is ballots received after November 3 aren’t supposed to be counted.
Another self-identified USPS employee in Pennsylvania made similar allegations in another Project Veritas interview.
While these claims occurred in other states, Texas went into the 2020 presidential election vulnerable to election fraud.
“Texas has real issues to address when it comes to securing elections, including verifying voter rolls,” Daniel Greer, executive director of DAT, said in September.
“The way you can tell they haven’t done anything to verify the voter list is that the left is not screeching,” JoAnn Fleming of Grassroots America – We The People said in a prior interview.
This year alone, East Texas Democrats and a North Texas mayoral candidate were charged with mail ballot fraud, Harris County—and to a lesser extent, Dallas County—enacted the highly suspect “drive-thru voting” method, and the integrity of curbside voting has been questioned.
Project Veritas also published an undercover tape that appeared to show ballot harvesting in South Texas, and taxpayer-funded resources at a North Texas school district were linked to efforts to electioneer for Democrats this year.
“Election law has been completely disregarded by some counties with the illegal implementation of ‘drive-thru’ voting, 24-hour voting, and advocation of ineligible voters voting by mail,” Welborn said.
She said the law itself is also flawed, pointing out “it has huge loopholes” that leave our elections “vulnerable to fraud.” Welborn also said government coronavirus orders have made many of these loopholes “larger and have created new ones.”
“Texans should be extremely concerned.”
A voting method that has repeatedly been highlighted in connection with election integrity issues this year is mail-in balloting, which Democrats pushed hard to expand this election. This method, Welborn explained, is meant for those who “absolutely cannot vote in person,” but it is ripe for fraud and abuse.
“Voting by mail does not have any of the protections of voting in person,” she explained. “It potentially eliminates voter ID, the secret ballot, freedom from intimidation while voting, chain of custody, and more.”
“I’ve been talking about mail-in voting for a long time,” President Donald Trump said at a November 5 news conference. “They want to be able to find the votes they need, and they seem to be able to find them.”
“The safest and most secure way to vote will always be in person,” Welborn added.
Expanding mail-in balloting can also create other unforeseen problems. Because of their huge increase of mail-in ballots this year, Tarrant County had to remake thousands of damaged ballots.
Fleming also pointed out that there is no set of standard practices for elections across Texas’ 254 counties.
“The lack of respect for the law shown by counties like Harris, Travis, Bexar, and Dallas is deeply disturbing,” Welborn said. “We must give the Office of the Attorney General the tools needed to keep these counties in check. The Secretary of State should be required to audit all 254 counties periodically.”
Action could have been taken during the 2019 Texas legislative session to make Texas elections more secure, but the issue was abandoned.
“Citizens cannot accept that from their legislators in the 2021 session,” Welborn said. “They must demand legislation that closes loopholes and increases penalties.”
As Texans wait to see the outcome of the presidential election, the 2021 Texas legislative session is coming soon, and action must be taken to ensure Texas does not have the kind of chaos Pennsylvania, Michigan, and Nevada currently do.
Concerned citizens may contact their elected state representative, their state senator, Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick, and Gov. Greg Abbott.
If citizens encounter or witness any election issues, they may call election integrity organization Direct Action Texas: 877-267-VOTE.
The Texas GOP hotline for election issues is 855-433-1663.
