E-Board Waste

The featured photo is the headline of today’s Chron E-Board take. A wasted take may I add. As long as the same folks are running the Texas Democratic Party like for a few decades now, Democrats don’t have a prayer of making gains.  The current chair of the Texas Democratic Party has overstayed his welcome if you ask Commentary.

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The Harris County Clerk put out a statement on Wednesday, the day after the election. Here is part of the statement:

“Overall, I believe, despite the hiccups experienced on Election Day, this was a very successful election due to the hard work of staff, poll workers, Harris County departments, and the support of the Texas Secretary of State.” said Harris County Clerk Teneshia Hudspeth. “Most election judges promptly returned the equipment and ballots after closing their vote center. However, there are always a handful who make our job difficult because they do not follow protocol.”
 
The last drop-offs occurred between 2 and 3 a.m. at election headquarters at NRG Arena—except for one polling location in Tomball.
 
“The presiding judge from a vote center at a school in Tomball was negligent. This person did not return the equipment or answer our calls,” said Clerk Hudspeth. “We had to wait until the school opened this morning to send a constable there to retrieve the missing equipment.”

I am guessing this presiding judge will never get to conduct or work in an election under Clerk Hudspeth. I hope this person doesn’t get paid. What a moron.

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I said this yesterday:

I was reviewing the election returns for the H-Town mayoral race. There was one East End precinct with zero vote totals. That precinct had a voting center on election day. Must be an error. I informed HarrisVotes on the discrepancy.

The precinct in question is Precinct 65 in Magnolia Park in the East End. They had a voting center at De Zavala Park on election day. I alerted the County Clerk’s office on Wednesday. They called me back yesterday. Apparently, it is a voter registrar issue. Pct. 65 voters have been rolled into Pct. 64.  They are adjoining precincts. The Precinct 64 totals for Tuesday include Precinct 65 voters who voted. 

Now you know.

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Meanwhile, this happened yesterday – from the Chron:

The results of Harris County’s highly scrutinized November 2022 election were upheld Thursday evening by a judge, who threw out all but one remaining election contest out of 21 related lawsuits.

Republican candidate Erin Lunceford filed her suit in December, asking a judge to order a new election in the 189th judicial district court race she lost to Democrat Tamika Craft by 2,743 votes. Lunceford argued thousands of residents were unable to vote due to a ballot paper shortage that impacted around 20 polls on Election Day. 

Lunceford’s case later expanded as her team went on to flag thousands of ballots they claimed should not have been counted. 

However, after an eight-day trial in which Lunceford’s legal team did not provide testimony from any disenfranchised voters, Judge David Peeples, a visiting judge from Bexar County, ruled the results of the race were legitimate. 

In a 36-page ruling, Peeples said he found Harris County had made “many mistakes and violations of the Election Code.” 

“But the court holds that not enough votes were put in doubt to justify voiding the election for the 189th District Court and ordering a new one,” Peeples concluded.

The ruling was not a clear win for Harris County, as Peeples did find merit with many of Lunceford’s arguments. By his estimate, a total of 2,891 votes were affected by various problems — larger than the margin in the race. However, Peeples determined that the outcome would not have changed, since many of those voters likely would have skipped the 189th judicial race on the ballot, and many of those who did vote in the race would have voted for Craft.

Here is the entire read: Harris County 2022 election results stand as judge tosses GOP claims (houstonchronicle.com).

The sore losers and election deniers will appeal, I am sure.

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From the it ain’t over until it’s over department, also see this from the Chron:

The Texas Rangers released new search warrants Thursday in a case involving three of Harris County Judge Lina Hidalgo’s former aides, who are facing charges related to a controversial COVID-19 contract that was canceled two years ago.

Harris County Commissioners Court awarded an $11 million contract in June 2021 to Elevate Strategies, a political consulting firm, to do COVID-19 vaccine outreach across the country. Though the contract was approved with little discussion, Jack Cagle, one of the county’s two Republican commissioners at the time, alleged Elevate won the contract because of political connections with Democrats.

And this:

The Texas Rangers investigator, who was assigned to the Elevate Strategies investigation in October 2021, continued the probe after a Harris County grand jury indicted the trio. He alleges that the staffers made use of personal phones and that “numerous documents and communications that were ordered to be produced by grand jury subpoena had been concealed and made unavailable.”

The messages, tied to WhatsApp accounts, have since been deleted, the investigator, Daron Parker, wrote.

The search warrants appear to highlight key moments in the creation of the Elevate contract, including the sharing of documents with Felicity Pereya, the founder of Elevate, before the proposal went public — an action that lawyers for Hidalgo previously described as unintentional.

Here is the entire read: Ex-Hidalgo staffers subject of new warrants in COVID contract case (houstonchronicle.com).

I don’t know what to say. The County Judge hired stupid folks for sure.

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It is cold today. The Christmas tree is heading toward Rockefeller Center. SiriusXM has activated a few Christmas tunes channels. The Hallmark Channel has been airing Christmas flicks for three weeks now. Thanksgiving Day is 13 days away. ‘Tis the season, folks.