Republican National Committee Warns Democrats to Maintain Electoral Integrity in 2022 Midterm Elections after GOP Electoral Integrity Team’s Efforts Forced Harris County, Texas Democratic Election Administrator to Resign Over Not Counted all ballots in the primary elections earlier this month on time. 24 hours.
“Democrats who undermine election integrity should consider themselves warned as the interim dates approach: Republicans ensure that those who fail to support a safe and transparent election will pay the price,” NRC Chair Ronna McDaniel told .
Isabel Longoria, the head of the Harris County Board of Elections, resigned earlier this month for failing to count the votes in due course.
The NRC called Longoria on the afternoon of Election Day, March 1, 2022, along with other members of the Democratic Party, to discuss the primary ballot count for the Texas district.
According to the Republican Party, Longoria admitted over the phone that she would not be able to complete the ballot count within the required 24-hour period, instead saying it would take “500 hours.”
The Harris County Republican Party has filed a lawsuit requiring the Election Administrator to “continuously” count ballots until all have been counted—up to 24 hours after polls close at 7:00 pm on March 1.
The vote count did not end until 30 hours after polling stations closed at 1:00 am on March 3.
“The RNC began investing in Texas election integrity long before the primary, training hundreds of poll monitors, hiring dozens of attorneys, and hiring staff in the election administration decision-making rooms,” said Republican National Committee (RNC) Chair Ronna McDaniel. .
RNC Chair Ronna McDaniel told : “Democrats who undermine election integrity should consider themselves warned as interim deadlines approach: Republicans ensure that those who fail to support a safe and transparent election will pay the price.”
The warning came after a GOP lawsuit in Texas forced Harris constituency administrator Isabelle Longoria (pictured) to resign after failing to count all ballots within 24 hours of the polls closing.
“Building this infrastructure has allowed us to hold Harris County Democrats accountable for failing to count ballots accurately and on time,” she added. “This culminated in the legal resignation of Isabelle Longoria, administrator of the Harris County Board of Elections.”
On Saturday after the election, Longoria announced that about 10,000 ballots had not yet been counted, including 6,000 Democratic ballots and 4,000 Republican ballots, a problem the Secretary of State discovered when checking ballot reconciliations.
Exactly one week after the March 7 elections, Longoria resigned effective July 1, 2022.
The resignation followed pressure, including from the RNC Electoral Integrity Panel, to step down from her post.
“The RNC is the only organization with the resources, the bandwidth and the drive to put shoes on the ground at the polls and lawyers in the room on election night,” McDaniel said of the pressure campaign and legal efforts that led to Longoria’s resignation.
The RNC Election Integrity team is focused on enforcing election laws, especially after many pro-Trump Republicans continue to make claims that the 2020 presidential election was riddled with fraud, fraud and other irregularities.
The 2020 elections were slightly different due to the prevailing COVID-19 pandemic, allowing for nationwide mail-in ballot measures.
Harris County GOP Chair Cindy Seigel testified before the House Administration Committee about the Harris County election failure and said that while Democrats blame Republicans for voter suppression, she said the real voter suppression occurs when thousands of ballots are counted late in an erratic process. which is what happened in Harris County.
When the Texas election hit the 24-hour mark, Longoria wanted to close the Central Count and stop the count for the night, but the RNC EI team denied the request and advised the Harris County Republican Party to file a lawsuit to confiscate the voting machines if the count was stopped.
The judge ruled that the count should continue and be updated every two hours.
The primaries, which took place on March 1 the same night that President Joe Biden delivered his address to Congress, narrowed down the candidates who will be on the ballot for the general election in the November 8, 2022 midterm elections.
Texas is a battleground where Republicans hope to maintain their majority as it is the most populous red state, but some urban blue areas are constantly expanding, especially as young people flock to the Lone Star state.