Trump Loses In Texas: Election Audit Bill He Begged For Dies In GOP-Led Legislature
Topline
The Texas legislature’s special session came to an end early Tuesday morning without the House passing two controversial election bills heavily pushed by former President Donald Trump, stymying the ex-president’s calls for partisan election audits to take place nationwide that would investigate his baseless claims of fraud in the 2020 election—even in states he won.
Texas Gov. Greg Abbott and former President Donald Trump shake hands during a border security … [+]
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Key Facts
The Texas Senate passed bills that would make illegal voting a felony instead of a misdemeanor and facilitate election audits into the 2020 election, but neither were taken up by the House during its special session.
Texas Gov. Greg Abbott declined to put the election audit bill on the agenda for the special session, despite repeated protestations from Trump, who told the Texas Tribune it would be a “big mistake” for the House not to pass the bill.
The audit bill would have let candidates and other officials request election audits from the secretary of state and forced counties to form “election review advisory committees” that would review the 2020 election results from specific precincts if requested.
Trump said in an October statement the bill “authorizes Texans to initiate a strong and real Forensic Audit” into the 2020 election results—as opposed to the “weak” audit Abbott authorized after Trump requested the state investigate its vote count—while opponents argued the legislation would undermine the results and waste state resources just to further Trump’s “Big Lie” the election was stolen.
House Speaker Dade Phelan also declined to bring to a vote the separate bill that would have increased the penalty for illegal voting, for which Trump had also criticized the speaker.
The Houston Chronicle notes the Texas House had passed a resolution last session that came out against criminal charges for illegal voting because it could punish people who made “honest mistakes.”
Crucial Quote
University of Houston political science professor Brandon Rottinghaus told the Chronicle it was “clear” Trump “was driving the narrative on much of this,” noting the fact the election audit and illegal voting penalty bills failed “does show you the limitation of Donald Trump on these voting issues.”
Big Number
Up to $250 million. That’s how much Texas taxpayers would have had to pay for the election audits that would have been ordered if the legislation passed, according to an analysis from AngelouEconomics and Secure Democracy. The cheapest a review could have been would be approximately $35 million, the analysis found.
Contra
While Abbott and the Texas House may not have gone forward with the election audit bill, the state is taking other steps. The Texas secretary of state’s office ordered a review of four counties’ election results, which Abbott has used to justify not moving forward with the audit legislation despite Trump saying that investigation does not go far enough. Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton announced Monday his office is also forming an “election integrity unit” to examine any irregularities with the upcoming 2021 election. Paxton’s office noted the effort is a continuation of his “Ballot Fraud Intervention Team” for the 2020 election—which the Chronicle reported resulted in only 16 cases being prosecuted despite more than 22,000 staff hours being spent on the effort.
Key Background
There is no evidence of widespread voter fraud in Texas or elsewhere in the U.S., and the Texas secretary of state’s office has previously said the state’s election was “smooth and secure.” Trump’s push for Texas to pass its audit bill is part of a broader effort by the ex-president and his allies to launch partisan election audits across the country that critics warn could sow distrust in the election results. Lawmakers in Wisconsin and Pennsylvania are already at work on election probes and Trump supporters are advocating for one in Michigan, even after the first major partisan election audit in Maricopa County, Arizona, actually found more votes for President Joe Biden than the state’s official tally. Trump warned last week that if the GOP doesn’t “solve” the purported issue of election fraud, “Republicans will not be voting in ‘22 or ‘24,” calling investigating the issue the “single most important thing for Republicans to do.”
Further Reading
‘The limitation of Donald Trump’: Election audit bill fails to pass in Texas Legislature (Houston Chronicle)
Texas legislators pass most — but not all — of Gov. Greg Abbott’s priority measures in final flurry of lawmaking (Texas Tribune)
Donald Trump adds fresh pressure to Gov. Greg Abbott over demand for a forensic election audit (Texas Tribune)
Texas legislation would allow partisan actors to request election audits (NPR)
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