Texas announces audit of 2020 votes after Trump urges review
AUSTIN, Texas - Texas election officials said Thursday night they were auditing the 2020 results in four large counties hours after former President Donald Trump, continuing to falsely claim the election was stolen, pressed Republican Gov. Greg Abbott for a ballot review.
Trump won Texas last year by 5.5 percentage points, the closest margin of victory by a GOP presidential nominee in decades.
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The Texas Secretary of State’s Office did not say what prompted the announcement in an evening news release. Earlier this year, Keith Ingram, the office’s elections administrator, said the 2020 elections in Texas were "safe and secure."
The audited counties will include the major Democratic strongholds around Houston and Dallas, as well as Tarrant County, which for years has been the largest GOP-controlled county in Texas but went for President Joe Biden last year.
Harris Co. being audited among other TX counties over 2020 election results
Blindsided and attacked are two words being used by Harris County leaders after finding out the Texas Secretary of State’s Office is looking into auditing the county’s 2020 election. FOX 26’s Rashi Vats has details on what prompted the audit.
"Under existing Texas laws, the Secretary of State has the authority to conduct a full and comprehensive forensic audit of any election and has already begun the process in Texas’ two largest Democrat counties and two largest Republican counties," the statement read.
It went on to say the office expects the Legislature to provide funding for the audit. It was not clear who would conduct the review, and a spokesman for the office did not return a message late Thursday.
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The Secretary of State is appointed by the governor in Texas but has remained vacant since Ruth Ruggero Hughs stepped down in May. An Abbott spokeswoman did not respond to questions about the announcement late Thursday.
Trump called on Abbott to conduct an audit of the Texas election in a statement earlier Thursday, saying "your citizens don’t trust the election system." Trump has falsely claimed that claimed that voting fraud and irregularities cost him electoral votes in Arizona, where on Friday his supporters hired to review the 2020 vote count are expected to deliver their findings.
The Debrief: Harris Co. audited for the 2020 election
Harris County is being audited by the state of Texas for the 2020 election happening hours after President Donald Trump asked Texas to look into the results were one of four counties that are going to be looked at, along with Collins, Tarrant, and Dallas County. FOX 26's Kaitlin Monte speaks with Political Analyst Mark Jones from Rice University to learn more.
The other county in the Texas review is booming Collin County, in suburban Dallas, which went for Trump last year.
Harris County Judge Lina Hidalgo, a Democrat and the county’s top elected official, swiftly criticized the move. "Donald Trump ordered Gov. Abbott to audit the 2020 Texas election and, like clockwork, TX just initiated an audit of Harris County voters. Democracy isn’t a game," she tweeted.