Tuesday, December 20, 2022

From the Texas Tribune: Texas elections secure despite COVID-related “irregularities” in 2020, audit finds

I suppose this finally conclude the 2020 election.

The principle take-away is that the election was run well and there were no egregious problems with how the counties handled it - despite claims to the contrary.

Among other things, the story illustrates the following terms and concepts in your textbook: 

- voter fraud
- audit
- counties
- Secretary of State John Scott
- chief election official
- Texas Election Code
- election security
- Texas Legislature
- Senate Bill 1
- Harris County elections administrators
- oversight
- Gov. Greg Abbott
- secretary of state
- Texas Senate.

- Click here for the story

- Click here for the report referred to in the article.

Despite challenges posed by the COVID-19 pandemic, there was neither widespread voter fraud nor other serious issues in Texas’ 2020 elections, according to an audit of four of Texas’ largest counties released Monday evening by Secretary of State John Scott’s office.

While the 359-page report did find some “irregularities,” it nonetheless reinforced what election experts and monitors — including Scott, the state’s chief election official — have routinely said: that the 2020 contest was not riddled with widespread fraud, and Texans should be confident that future elections will be similarly secure.

“When the Texas Election Code and local procedures are followed, Texas voters should have a very high level of confidence in the accuracy of the outcome of Texas elections,” the report stated. “When procedures are followed, results of the election are trustworthy. Indeed, in most cases, the audit found that the counties followed their procedures and clearly documented their activities.”