The proposals were filed in response to Harris County’s problems at the polls in recent elections.
Natalia Contreras
Natalia Contreras covers election administration and voting access for Votebeat in partnership with The Texas Tribune. She has covered a range of topics as a community journalist including local government, public safety, immigration and social issues. Natalia previously reported for the Austin American-Statesman, focusing on impacts of government policies on communities of color. Natalia previously worked at the Indianapolis Star, where she helped launch the first Spanish-language newsletter, and at the Corpus Christi Caller-Times. She was born in Tampico, Tamaulipas in Mexico and grew up in Corpus Christi, Texas. She is based in Corpus Christi.
Posted in
Texas Legislature 2023
Texas Senate revives effort to make illegal voting a felony
Lawmakers lowered the penalty to a misdemeanor in 2021, but then almost immediately began discussing raising it back.
Posted in
Texas Legislature 2023
Texas taxpayers face a $100 million bill to update voting machines with equipment that doesn’t exist yet
State lawmakers approved the requirement — which attracted little attention or debate — in their massive overhaul of the state’s voting laws during a 2021 special Legislative session.
Posted in
Politics
Three Texas counties are suing the attorney general to get clarity on when the public can access post-election ballots
For decades, the attorney general’s office advised counties to keep ballots for 22 months after an election. Then Attorney General Ken Paxton issued an opinion saying they could be quickly released to anyone who requested them.
Posted in
Texas Legislature 2023
Ken Paxton wants more power to prosecute election crimes. These bills in the Texas Legislature would give it to him.
Although no evidence of widespread voter fraud has been found, Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton has been actively pursuing election-related crimes since he took office in 2015.
Posted in
Texas 2022 Elections
Almost two months after Election Day, Harris County still doesn’t know if polling site problems kept people from voting
Some sites opened late and reportedly ran out of paper in November, but the county says its investigation into the issues “has not yet revealed” whether anyone was turned away.
Posted in
State Government
“He had our back”: John Scott’s legacy as secretary of state will be his defense of local election officials
Thrust into the job at a contentious time, Scott believed defending the integrity of Texas elections was his top priority
Posted in
Texas 2022 Elections
Critics are pouncing on Harris County’s election fumbles, real and concocted, to fuel legal challenges
In the latest fallout from Election Day woes, a GOP judicial candidate is suing to overturn her loss, citing unspecified data and “2,000 reports” of polling place problems.
Posted in
Texas 2022 Elections
Texas Supreme Court orders Harris County to include more than 2,000 late-cast ballots in certified election results
After a last-minute challenge from the attorney general, county commissioners agreed to certify those provisional votes in time for the canvassing deadline.
Posted in
Texas 2022 Elections
Here’s why we still don’t know what went wrong in Harris County on Election Day
The state’s biggest county has no central system for tracking problems, so it still can’t say how many polling places opened late, ran out of paper or worked just fine.
