Greg Abbott sounds alarm over Houston “voter fraud”

Governor Greg Abbott has declared that “voter fraud is real” after a Texas judge ordered a new election in Houston.

In May, a judge ordered a new election in Harris County’s November 2022 180th District Court judicial race following the finding that more than 1,400 vote cast were illegal and that it was impossible to determine which candidate received them.

Republican candidate Tami Pierce lost by just under 450 votes to Democrat DaSean Jones, who is currently a Texas district court judge, at the time.

Now, Abbott has taken to X, formerly Twitter, to share his view on the ruling. “Voter fraud is real. Especially in Houston,” he wrote.

Quoting a May 2024 article from the Houston Chronicle, he included the following comment from Judge David Peeples: “The court has found that 1,430 illegal votes were cast in the race for the 180th District Court.

“The judge hearing the case ordered a redo of the election,” the post continues. “We must end voter fraud.”

Newsweek has contacted Abbott’s team for comment via email outside of normal working hours.

X users were quick to respond to the post from Saturday evening. “Yet none of you have done anything about it but post on here and blow smoke,” user Larry wrote. “Why don’t you actually hold someone accountable and do something about it.”

John Maziasz posted: “Voter fraud needs to come with a mandatory minimum of a 10-year prison sentence.”

Another, posting under the name Honkylips, said: “Get rid of the machines and use paper ballots. It’s 2024 you could have fixed this after 2020.” EdBernard12 responded with: “Yeah, Greg, just keep redoing the election till you get the result you want.”

What happened in Texas?

In the wake of the Texas judicial election in 2022, 21 Republican candidates for county offices, including Pierce, filed lawsuits challenging the results.

Peeples previously upheld the results in 20 of these cases, but in May this year he ruled that the race between Pierce and Jones for the 180th District Court in Harris County could not be determined due to the small number of votes separating the winner from the loser. Pierce lost by just 449 votes.

According to a report by the Texas Tribune, Peeples said a total of 983 votes were invalid due to residency-related issues or voters residing outside of Harris County. It was also found that 445 voters did not provide a valid form of photo identification and 48 mail-in ballots either lacked signatures or were not received within the designated timeframe.

A date for a new election has not been set following the ruling.