Issues started with Chris Hollins were stonewalled by resigned Elections Administrator Isabelle Longoria
Texas Insider Report: AUSTIN, Texas – A released audit letter from Texas Secretary of State John Scott's Office shows a massive chain-of-custody breach in Ballot Security for the Harris County Elections from 2020. In fact, the letter from the Secretary of State's Director of Forensic Audit Division, Chad Ennis, points out that the former elections administrator Isabelle Longoria wouldn't even let her staff communicate with the Texas Secretary of State's personnel during the audit. "I have been trying to get answers about mismatched vote totals in Harris County since the November 2020 Election, including as far back as early voting," said former Harris County and Houston Tax Collector Assessor, and now State Senator Paul Bettencourt – who has been persistently trying to get answers on the discrepancies.
"So while I'm not surprised, it is shocking to see an estimated breach of over 100,000 votes with the chain-of-custody broken and Harris County election administrators not following the law."14 polls with no proper chain-of-custody for the Mobile Ballot Boxes means that the election management personnel of Harris County cannot follow State and Federal laws!" Bettencourt (right,) said. Senator Bettencourt's estimate of 140,000+ questionable ballots comes from the fact that Mobile Ballot Boxes (MBBs) have a limit of 9,999 for each Judge Booth Controller. Bettencourt said that, apparently, they were found to be amalgamated to a higher average amount. Bettencourt first detected errors in early voting totals during the election, and despite his questions – as well as multiple requests from the Texas Secretary of State – no answer was ever received on these issues from the appointed County Clerk Chris Hollins, or the resigned Elections Administrator Isabel Longoria. "Despite me using facts that Harris County has 1.884 more votes than the Voter Roster reflects in their records, during senate floor debates no answer came – and now we know why!
"They didn't maintain the required election records and violated the law," said Bettencourt.
"Also, its preposterous not to be able to read voter information on these MBB's from the prior election.
"I hope County Attorney Menefee, Judge Hidalgo, as well as Commissioners Ellis and Garcia will drop their frivolous lawsuit from August, 2022 and get to work helping new Elections Administrator Clifford Tatum clean this mess up!" concluded Bettencourt.
Finally, in early August of this year, the Harris County Commissioners Court voted along partylines 3-to-2 to authorize what Bettencourt called a "frivolous" lawsuit, after the Secretary of State randomly drew Harris County as one of the two counties selected for a 2022 Election Audit.In response to the Harris County Commissioners Court vote approving the pursuit of the lawsuit against the State of Texas, Senator Bettencourt said the following:
“The democrat majority on the Harris County Commissioner's Court has authorized their most ‘frivolous’ election lawsuit yet – on a partisan 3 to 2 vote.
"This time – along with County Attorney Menefee – they're disputing the ‘randomness’ of an audit selection process by the Texas Secretary of State, after Harris County was one of two large counties out of 18 selected per an Amendment to Senate Bill 1.
"Really!? More like a frivolous squared waste of taxpayer monies this time,” Bettencourt said.
- See the October 18th letter from the Texas Sect. of State's Director of Forensic Audit Division Chad Ennis to Harris County Elections Administrator Clifford Tatum.
- Click to read Bettencourt's Press Release following the commissioner's lawsuit vote in August.
