Harris County elections

Regarding “'T’was the Night Before Elections,’ the ballad of Teneshia Hudspeth (Editorial),” (Dec. 19): The state Legislature accomplished something that the leftist progressive Harris County leadership could not: putting the job of running elections in the experienced hands of elected officials, County Clerk Teneshia Hudspeth and Tax Assessor-Collector Ann Harris Bennett. My Senate Bill 1750 replaced the failed office of election administration through a bipartisan vote.

You can imagine my dismay and disgust when I read “Republican mischief had set quite a trap,” insinuating that, once again, Republican leaders are somehow responsible for past Harris County election issues or plotting a future takeover. Nothing is further from the truth, and the editorial board knows that, as they reached out for an interview.

It wasn’t Republicans who failed to report 10,000 votes in the last primary or failed to supply enough ballot paper during the general election; it was appointed Harris County elections administrators. The board’s poetic diatribe about Republicans and their intentions is simply not true.

Way back in the legislative session, I quipped from the Senate floor during a statewide sorority visit that Clerk Hudspeth would make a better elections administrator as I had hoped for a successful Houston election in 2023. After the passage of my two bills, SB 1750 and Senate Bill 1933, with Reps. Briscoe Cain and Tom Oliverson as House sponsors, that is what occurred with Hudspeth’s and Bennett’s offices’ hard work.

I have lost hope that the board will consistently and factually state what actually occurred: that Republican leadership, with a bipartisan vote, put elected Democrats back in charge of Harris County elections to restore the public trust in elections. Until they do, I will no longer respond to any board requests.

Paul Bettencourt, Texas state senator, District 7