Austin, TX – Senator Paul Bettencourt (R-Houston), author of SB 1750 & SB 1933, released the following statement in response to today’s news conference by Harris County officials:

“There’s a reason why laws are passed in the State of Texas, so that Counties and Election Administrators can follow them. The reason why the EA position and its duties have been returned to the elected officials by SB 1750 is that they did the job for decades correctly, therefore this is about performance not politics.

Both elected Democrat Harris County Office Holders have extensive prior experience in elections and voter registration. The intent of the law is clear to return these duties to both of them, not just the County Clerk. These points were considered by the Legislature and debated, and the law signed by the Governor will be final.

It’s up to County Judge Hidalgo to realize that both her appointed Election Administrators, one who already resigned in 2022, and the other who had a history of poor performance in Washington D.C., repeatedly failed here in Harris County.

The Legislature’s support for SB 1750 and SB 1933 is because Harris County is not too big to fail, but too big to ignore.

The Legislature will next conference on SB 1933 providing oversight from the Texas Secretary of State as the need should arise in future.

The public’s trust in elections in Harris County must be restored after a continuing set of problems culminating the fact that the current EA couldn’t or wouldn’t get millions of sheets ballot paper out of the warehouse to the polls for voters to vote on, and that’s real voter suppression! It can NOT be tolerated in the Nation’s 3rd Largest County.” - Stated Senator Paul Bettencourt.

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