The Texas Secretary of State’s Office announced last week that a full forensic audit was being conducted of the 2020 General Election.

According to the press release, 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—Dallas, Harris, Tarrant, and Collin—for the 2020 election.

The position of Secretary of State is currently vacant, as Ruth Ruggero Hughs notified Governor Gregg Abbott of her departure, effective May 31, 2021. Gov. Abbott has yet to nominate a successor.

Texas Deputy Secretary of State is Jose A. “Joe” Esparza, who has served in this capacity almost three years.

“We anticipate the Legislature will provide funds for this purpose,” reads the official statement.

Freestone County Times contacted the County Chair for the Republican party and the Democratic party to comment on the forensic audits being conducted.

 

Republican Chair – Doug Sanford, DVM had this to say:

“The democrats are trying to establish a Russia style election where our officials are appointed by the government.  They are trying to slip laws into the funding bills which will give power to Washington.

“We must have honest, fair elections which can be verified.

“I am in favor of Forensic Audits of the elections.  I am prepared to have any election I have participated in audited.”

 

A statement from Democratic Chair – Richard O’Dell reads as follows:

“I believe that the “forensic audit” of Dallas, Tarrant, Harris, and Collin counties is just a double-edged ploy to distract the political and the public’s eye from the real issues our government should be addressing.

“Donald Trump is still trying to undermine the election of 2020 in whatever way that he can. He raises one red herring after another to weaken the public’s trust in the democratic principle of a fair and open election. And each of these stunts meets with defeat because they are all based on a lie. As Texas Democratic Party Chair Gilberto Hinojosa stated publicly,

This is all an organized effort to fuel the ‘Big Lie’ and stroke Trump’s ego while also rationalizing more laws targeting voters of color. Abbott’s acceptance of this request [to audit four counties] is shameful, especially because he knows very well that the 2020 election was ‘smooth and secure,’ as affirmed by his own hand-picked Secretary of State.

“It is no coincidence that Trump is requesting the state’s three largest counties, all of which voted for Biden, be included in this audit – we cannot waste any more time and money pandering to the ego of a sore loser…

“Greg Abbott, one of Trump’s most faithful sycophants, has now committed taxpayers’ money and the state’s energy to pay for this ruse, taking the focus off of his own failures. Instead of actually dealing with issues such as the energy infrastructure failure that led to last winter’s icy boondoggle, we will spend money and energy counting and recounting votes. Will they find any ballots that were miscounted or not counted. Probably yes. There will be mistakes in a state as large as Texas and with as many votes as there were in these four counties. Were these mistakes intentional? No. Will these mistakes make a difference in the outcome of the election? NO! In an AP News article dated May 25, 2021, the Associated Press said of these constant calls for recounts that they “are unlikely to yield any new revelations about President Joe Biden’s victory in the 2020 election.” The article continues by saying that these “audits are serving a clear political purpose in firing up the Republican Party’s base.”

“The Brennan Center for Justice, an independent, nonpartisan law and policy organization, said on December 11, 2020,
government officials, judges, and elected leaders, overwhelmingly Republican, have publicly acknowledged confidence in the November election. Election officials and election security experts have long been clear: voter fraud is extraordinarily rare and our system has strong checks in place to protect the integrity of our voting process. These are the facts. But the facts have not stopped bad actors from trotting out baseless claims of “systemic voter fraud” to suppress votes and undermine trust in our democracy for political gain.

By all measures, the 2020 general election was one of the most secure elections in our history. Voters turned out in record numbers to cast their ballots by mail and in person, and the votes were counted in a timely manner. This success, however, did not dissuade [ex-]President Trump and his enablers from loudly claiming fraud when the race did not go his way.

“I feel that these baseless allegations and extravagant political stunts will continue until we have, as Abraham Lincoln said in the faux book My History of the United States, by Donald Trump, we have “a government of Donald T, by Donald T and for Donald T.”