The Texan Podcast - Daily Rundown - October 3, 2024

Starting point is 00:00:00 Howdy, folks. Today is Thursday, October 3rd, and you're listening to the Texans Daily Rundown. I'm the Texans Media and Marketing Manager, Maslin Jordan, and here is the rundown of today's news in Texas politics. First up, federal, state, and local elected officials in Texas have penned a letter to the U.S. Department of Justice expressing their concern over the upcoming election, in addition to calling on intervention from federal officials. The letter points to Harris, Dallas, Tarrant, Bayard, and Travis counties in particular, and requests the DOJ to, quote, exercise its authority to monitor the state of Texas's action affecting constitutional voting rights and federal civil

Starting point is 00:00:45 rights, end quote, through the 2024 election period. Harris County has continued to be fraught with issues related to elections, with multiple election contests and criminal complaints being filed. Harris County Commissioner Rodney Ellis and County Attorney Christian Menefee both signed onto the letter. Both were vocal opponents of the state's efforts to audit the county's elections in 2020 and 2022, the latter of which found that the county violated Texas election law. Menefee unsuccessfully filed a lawsuit in attempt to block state legislation forcing the county to return elections management from an appointed administrator to the elected county clerk last year. Governor Greg Abbott has been vocal about elections in Harris County, telling the Texan that he and the Texas legislature,

Starting point is 00:01:29 quote, are going to go into this next session looking to use even stronger measures to hold Harris County accountable, end quote. Signatures from eight U.S. Congress members, including Representative Colin Allred, two Harris County officials, two Tarrant County commissioners, one Bayar, Dallas, and Travis County official each, eight state senators, and 26 state House members adorn this letter. While much of the 2024 political energy in Texas has been directed at the presidential and senatorial races, Republicans have launched a well-heeled effort to retake control of state appeals courts with jurisdiction over Houston and the southeastern Texas region. In November, voters will weigh in on five seats on the first and five seats on the 14th Court of Appeals, and three Republican female candidates are joining the force to launch a

Starting point is 00:02:16 front-facing campaign to unseat incumbent Democrats. On Wednesday, former Harris County Criminal Court Judge Maritza Antu, defense attorney Tanya McLaughlin, and civil attorney Katie Boatman unveiled a joint website and advertising campaign featuring Jim Mattress Mac, Mackingvale, to promote their candidacy for seats on the 14th Corn of Appeals. Antu told the Texan, quote, voting all the way down the ballot has never been as important as it is this year. Judicial races are not at the top of the ballot, but that does not mean that they are insignificant. I think the public now understands that the result in judicial races have an impact on their daily lives, end quote. The two courts hear all appeals for criminal, civil, juvenile, and family cases for a

Starting point is 00:02:59 10-county region and often have the final word, since the state's two highest courts, the Supreme Court of Texas and the Court of Criminal Appeals, only take up a small percentage of cases each year. The Dallas County Elections Department's ballot tabulation equipment recently failed a test required to be performed before each election, according to Dallas County Republican Party Chairman Allen West. On September 18th, a team of observers watched the public test be performed and found the equipment failed in several regards, West told the Texan. The central accumulator, the main tabulation computer that counts ballots on election night,

Starting point is 00:03:33 failed the logic and accuracy test in four test races. The test involves inputting a known result into the central accumulator and then, if the certified software is operating correctly, the same result should be the output. However, in four races, the results were not accurate. In one race, the output differed by 900, and in another by 628. Thanks for listening. To support The Texan, please be sure to visit thetexan.news and subscribe to get full access to all of our articles, newsletters, and podcasts.

The Texan Podcast - Daily Rundown - October 3, 2024

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