Harris County Republicans call for firing of elections administrator
HOUSTON - In the wake of this weekend's discovery of 10,000 uncounted primary ballots, leaders of Harris County's Republican Party announced the filing of another round of litigation and called for the removal of election administrator Isabel Longoria.
"All of this is because of incompetence, inexperience, disingenuous behavior of Lina Hidalgo's handpicked election administrator. She must go!" said State Senator Paul Bettencourt.
MORE: 'BY FAR THE WORST RUN PRIMARY I'VE EVER SEEN' Harris Co. seeks extension on counting votes
In its "breach of contract" suit, the HCRP is seeking court oversight of the next three elections to restore what it calls badly shaken confidence in Democratic process.
Steven Mitby lays out Harris Co. GOP lawsuit
Harris Co. GOP - press conference on vote counting debacle in Harris County's primary elections. Attorney Steven Mitby representing the Harris County GOP in a lawsuit against Harris County Elections administrator Isabel Longoria, explains why they have filed the lawsuit.
Following last Tuesday's primary, Harris County was the only jurisdiction in Texas to miss the mandatory 24-hour state deadline to have all ballots counted.
"The (Democratic) focus continues to be it's always somebody else's fault, why the most egregious mismanagement of an election process to ever occur in the history of Harris County under Isabel Longoria's leadership. It is amazing that it is the voters fault. It is the presiding judge's fault. It is the paper ballot's fault. It's Senate Bill 1's fault and no one down at Isabel Longoria's office is really taking responsibility for what really was truly mismanagement of the election process," said Cindy Siegel, HCRP Chairwoman.
Republicans repeated a litany of alleged miscues including malfunction machines, undelivered supplies, mixed up and improperly sized paper ballot forms, along with staffing shortages and inaccurate statements by Longoria under oath.
State Senator Paul Bettencourt on the Harris County primary elections
State Senator Paul Bettencourt making comments about the Harris County primary elections as the Harris County GOP files a lawsuit against County Election Administrator Isabel Longoria. "She must go." "it's time for either her to resign, or her to be fired."
"The question is how we go forward so we have elections in this county that the public, the political parties, and every citizen can trust the outcome. You can't do it by going oops, I found 10,000 votes on Saturday night after the newscasts were already closed. That's not the way to build public confidence," said Bettencourt, adding that the missing ballots were discovered by the Texas Secretary of State, not Longoria's staff.
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Longoria is set to appear before Commissioner's Court at Tuesday's meeting. FOX 26 has learned Pct. 3 Commissioner Tom Ramsey will call on the Election Commission to terminate Longoria's employment.