Texas Scorecard by Erin Anderson November 29, 2023
The law’s author says elected officials are already doing a better job administering elections than the county’s appointees.Harris County has dropped its challenge to a new Texas law that returned election administration duties to elected officials in the state’s most populous county.
Senate Bill 1750, which took effect on September 1, abolished the appointed position of elections administrator in any county with a population of more than 3.5 million and transferred election administration and voter registration duties back to the county’s elected county clerk and tax assessor-collector.
Only Harris County currently fits the law’s population requirement.
Harris County Attorney Christian Menefee filed a lawsuit in July claiming that SB 1750 violated the Texas constitution by specifically targeting the county.
State Sen. Paul Bettencourt (R–Houston), who authored the measure, called the lawsuit “frivolous” and “a waste of taxpayer money.”
Bettencourt said SB 1750 was a response to recent “election fiascos” managed by county appointees.
The first fiasco in Harris County involved Interim County Clerk Chris Hollins, a Texas Democrat Party official appointed in May 2020 to oversee the November 2020 election after the elected county clerk resigned. A state audit found “very serious issues” in Hollins’ management of Harris County’s 2020 general election.
More:
https://texasscorecard.com/local/harris-county-drops-challenge-to-law-that-abolished-elections-administrator/
