Washington, D.C. – Congressman Colin Allred (TX-32) today led a group of his Texas colleagues in requesting that the U.S. Department of Justice Civil Rights Division closely monitor the ongoing election audit targeting Collin, Dallas, Harris, and Tarrant Counties.
“The State of Texas has already declared the November 2020 elections as ‘safe and secure’. And initial results of the audit announced by the Secretary of State Office in Texas showed that there were few significant irregularities,” the members wrote. “We ask that the Justice Department carefully oversee this process to ensure the audit is transparent and fair and not another veiled attempt to disenfranchise Texas voters.”
On New Year’s Eve 2021, the Texas Secretary of State released partial results from the audit finding few issues, and as similar processes already in place found, the 2020 election was administered with few irregularities.
Allred was joined in the effort by Reps. Sylvia Garcia (TX-29), Lizzie Fletcher (TX-07), Joaquin Castro (TX-20), Filemon Vela (TX-34), Lloyd Doggett (TX-35), Eddie Bernice Johnson (TX-30), Al Green (TX-09), Veronica Escobar (TX-16), and Marc Veasey (TX-33).
Read the full letter below:
Dear Assistant Attorney General Clarke,
We write to call attention to the four-county election audit currently underway in Collin, Dallas, Harris and Tarrant Counties in Texas. We have serious concern that this audit may be an attempt to invalidate properly cast ballots in the 2020 Presidential election. We ask that your office closely monitor and work collaboratively with Texas state officials to ensure this audit does not unfairly erode any Texan’s ability to choose their leaders through the ballot box.
Following the November 2020 election, then President Trump led a now infamous campaign to undermine the credibility of those results. All subsequent investigations into those claims, including those led by Republican governors, confirmed that there was no widespread election rigging and that the results were indeed valid. That, however, did not stop former President Trump from carrying out a maximum pressure campaign against Governors across multiple states to try and overturn the election results.
Texas Governor Greg Abbott was among those who received communication from the former President instructing him to carry out another audit even though a Texas official with the Secretary of State’s Office had characterized the 2020 election in Texas as “smooth and secure”. Governor Abbott, who himself has repeated baseless claims about undocumented immigrants registering to vote in Texas, appointed John Scott as Texas Secretary of State an office responsible for upholding Texans’ right to vote and is leading the audit of election results in Collin, Dallas, Harris and Tarrant Counties. Mr. Scott previously represented former President Trump as his lawyer in an unsuccessful attempt to challenge election results in Pennsylvania. Additionally, Mr. Scott defended Texas’s restrictive voter ID law which was ultimately partially struck down in court. This newly announced audit raises serious impartiality and fairness concerns given Mr. Scott’s previous work seeking to invalidate authentic election results and Governor Abbott’s history of peddling false election claims.
The State of Texas has already declared the November 2020 elections as “safe and secure”. And initial results of the audit announced by the Secretary of State Office in Texas showed that there were few significant irregularities. We ask that the Justice Department carefully oversee this process to ensure the audit is transparent and fair and not another veiled attempt to disenfranchise Texas voters.
