Texas Senate Passes Bill To Seize Control of Elections from Local Authorities
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If the state imposes oversight on a county, the county election office would be required to submit any voting or policy changes to the state for approval and allow staff from the secretary of state’s office to observe election proceedings. The state would also be empowered to appoint a conservator to take over election duties and recommend that a county suspend or terminate the current election administrator. “[T]he governor is trying to override voters to replace leaders he can’t control,”ACLU Texas tweeted about the legislation.
In recent years, Texas state officials have clashed with local election administrators who aim to expand voting access, especially in Democratic strongholds like Harris County, home to Houston. Other legislation moving this session would similarly wrestle control from local administrators. For example, Senate Bill 1750 would eliminate the position of election administrator in counties with a population of 3.5 million or more (Harris County is the only county with this many people) and Senate Bill 1993 would give the secretary of state the authority to order an election to be rerun in counties with a population of more than 2.7 million (again, only Harris County would qualify) under certain circumstances. S.B. 1750 and S.B. 1993 have both advanced out of committee and await a vote on the full Senate floor.