More on the fight against local control.
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Texas Republicans are weighing several election reforms that would expand their oversight of local elections and stiffen legal penalties for election workers who violate the law.
The measures, all aimed squarely at Harris County, are being spearheaded by the same lawmakers who two years ago led a crackdown on voting methods pioneered by Texas’ largest county, like drive-thru and 24-hour voting, in the name of preventing voter fraud.
This time, Republicans are focused less on the mechanics of the voting process itself, proposing broader changes that would empower the secretary of state’s office to oversee local elections, dictate which county officials run elections in large metro areas, and punish election judges and workers with felonies or other tough penalties for running afoul of the Texas Election Code.
Harris County Elections Administrator Cliff Tatum has acknowledged a “dire need” to improve how the county conducts elections. In a report issued several weeks after the midterm, Tatum said the operational systems behind the county’s elections are in “immediate need of upgrades or replacements” and floated the idea of an election-worker evaluation system to make sure the teams running the polls are all up to the task.
Bettencourt’s bill would take a different approach, hiking legal penalties for election officials who intentionally obstruct or fail to deliver election supplies in a timely manner. The same measure would also make it a felony, up from a Class A misdemeanor, to reveal election results before the polls close. That's a response to Harris County’s release of early voting results before the 8 p.m. court-extended deadline in November.
David Weinberg, testifying against the bill on behalf of the Brennan Center for Justice at New York University School of Law, said it would “follow a trend that we're seeing in this legislature of criminalizing the behavior of election workers.”
“There has been a real issue — we've heard this in testimony on other bills today — on retaining and finding poll workers,” Weinberg said. “This bill would make the failure to deliver supplies, it would go from essentially a speeding ticket … to looking at real jail time. That can have a chilling effect on trying to recruit and retain poll workers for your elections.”
Here's more:
- Texas Republicans take their epic battle against blue cities to a new level.
For as long as he's been in office, Gov. Greg Abbott has waged war with Texas cities, warning that the state is being "California-ized" by local overregulation.
But until now, the offensive has stuck to single measures, like barring cities from regulating most oil and gas drilling or forcing landlords to accept federal housing vouchers. Republican lawmakers have pushed off more sweeping proposals, including attempts to prohibit local governments from passing any ordinance more stringent than state law.
Those sorts of measures are on the table this year in what could be the most productive legislative session yet for conservatives looking to rein in the state's largest cities and counties, most of which are run by Democrats. Among the ideas are enhancing state oversight of county-run elections, taking aim at progressive judges and prosecutors, slashing local officials' emergency powers and broadly restricting the types of regulations cities and counties can enact.
Local officials are watching a few bills in particular, including one backed by Abbott that would bar cities and counties from regulating entire “fields” already controlled by state law.
Under the proposal, local regulations covering agriculture, labor and other areas would be limited to what’s “explicitly authorized” in state codes. State Sen. Brandon Creighton, a Conroe Republican who's carrying the bill in the Senate, said it would “streamline regulations so Texas job creators can have ... the certainty they need to invest and expand.”
Bennett Sandlin, executive director of the Texas Municipal League, said the idea would kneecap local business regulations and could jeopardize commonplace ordinances that overlap with state codes, like limits on overgrown grass and local drought management plans.
“The problem with these bills is just, we don't know the scope when you just talk about whole state codes,” Sandlin said.
