Assclown Alert is a column of opinion, analysis and snark.
Apparently, rewriting Texas voting laws to make it harder for people of color to cast ballots wasn’t enough for State Sen. Paul Bettencourt.
With the special session of the Texas Legislature winding down, the Houston Republican last week introduced Senate Bill 97, which proposed setting up a new civil process to dispute the results of the 2020 election and other contests going forward, the Houston Chronicle reports.
Bettencourt’s proposal failed to pass given its late introduction. But this assclown still deserves ridicule for even attempting it. His turd of a bill was both unnecessary and dangerous.
Texas already has a process to investigate possible election irregularities and address them through criminal complaints. Bettencourt’s bill would have set up separate civil track under which candidates, political parties’ county chairs and others could demand audits of counties’ election results.
Under the failed legislation, individuals could demand county elections officials explain election outcomes with which they disagree, according to the Chronicle. If the party requesting the explanation didn’t like it, they could then request the Texas Secretary of State audit the election — at the county’s expense.
One can imagine the flood of frivolous complaints, not to mention outright intimidation, such a boneheaded process would open. Not to mention the expenses that would rack up as counties were forced to pay for audits demanded by aggrieved party chairs.
What’s clear from Bettencourt’s bill is that he and other members of the Texas GOP are more concerned with fighting election outcomes than winning elections. After all, the latter looks to be increasingly tall order given the raft of damaging legislation they forced down Texans’ throats this summer.
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This article appears in Sep 8-21, 2021.
