In the wake of a judge overturning the results of a Brownsville ISD School Board election, Texas gubernatorial candidate Don Huffines is criticizing Gov. Greg Abbott for his position on elections.
The school board election was overturned because the number of fraudulent votes exceeded the margin of victory. There were 24 fraudulent votes in that election, with 16 coming from the same warehouse. In addition, three ballots did not have a signature and another three were marked by another person.
“Everyone knows that voter fraud is rampant," Huffines said in response. "Greg Abbott only encourages it by lowering the penalties for voter fraud and refusing to audit the 2020 election. Texas needs a governor that will secure our elections and prosecute those found guilty of fraud. When I am governor, that is what I will do.”
Abbott supported Senate Bill 1, which passed in 2021, to mandates that if an election administrator gets an application for a mail-in ballot with a signature that doesn't match the filed signature, the administrator can still accept the application if it has the right Social Security number or driver's license number. Critics of the legislation say vote harvesters can still steal or buy Social Security numbers and driver's license numbers to fill out ballots.
An amendment was added to the bill that also decreased criminal penalties for voter fraud. Nonetheless, Texas continues to fair well in studies on voter integrity, ranking sixth by The Heritage Foundation with a score of 76.
However, Texas has had some problems with voter fraud in recent years. There have been 534 charges of voter fraud in the state over the past 10 years on 154 individuals, with another 510 counts still awaiting prosecution.
This will be a key theme in the March 1 Republican gubernatorial primary in Texas, when Huffines will face off against Abbott. In October of last year, Huffines criticized Abbott for working with Democrats on the 2020 Election.
Huffines is a businessman and former Texas senator, while Abbott was elected as the 48th governor of Texas in 2014 and served as the state's attorney general prior to that.
