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    • Travis County GOP election lawsuit is part of national strategy
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    Travis County GOP election lawsuit is part of national strategy

    Sakege Posted on

    Travis County Republican Party Chairman Matt Mackowiak made an urgent announcement last Tuesday, more than a week after early voting: The local Republican Party had sued the Travis County elections administrator, alleging that she created a “serious deficiency” in the number of Republican poll workers at the county’s more than 170 polling locations.

    “It is totally unacceptable that large portions of our county do not have Republican election judges assigned, even though we provide many more available workers than are needed,” Mackowiak said in a statement announcing the emergency petition. He was referring to a list of people the county Republican Party had asked county officials to consider appointing to conduct polls during early voting in the Nov. 5 general election.

    It is common practice in Texas and other states to allow local Republican and Democratic parties to make these types of recommendations to help ensure bipartisan staffing at polling places. People on those lists are supposed to be given priority.

    In their emergency petition filed with the Austin-based Third Court of Appeals, Mackowiak and the county Republican Party accused Travis County Clerk Dyana Limon-Mercado of failing to exhaust the party’s list before naming others. people.

    The petition urged the court to force Limón-Mercado’s office to “achieve bipartisan representation at all Election Day polling places” and demanded that the court force her to “replace any and all Democrats who “have been selected, placed, and assigned to each of the early voting and Election Day voting locations” with a candidate from the county Republican ticket.

    A three-judge panel dismissed the lawsuit the next day, calling it “moot.” The decision pleased Limón-Mercado’s office, which said in a statement that it “sends a strong message to our staff and poll workers that their hard work is valued.”

    “We appreciate the continued dedication of the team of bipartisan poll workers and their continued commitment to serving Travis County,” the statement said.

    Mackowiak told the American-Statesman in an emailed statement Thursday that the court “did not rule on the merits” and that the party was exploring its options. The next day he presented a emergency appeal with the Texas Supreme Court.

    According to Mackowiak, the county Republican Party acted entirely in response to numerous complaints from aspiring Republican poll workers who were never called upon to help run a polling place.

    “It was not driven or influenced by any events in other states,” he said in the email.

    But local and state branches of the Republican Party and even the Republican National Committee have filed nearly identical allegations this year in election offices across the country, filing complaints and lawsuits in Michigan, Minnesota and Wisconsin. The RNC, which did not respond to a request for comment, filed a similar case against the Arizona government. Maricopa County in 2022.

    The effort has yielded some triumphs.

    The Republican National Committee, for example, He said he reached an agreement in October with the elections office in Detroit. And just last week, the Minnesota Supreme Court determined that Hennepin County, home to Minneapolis, had not exhausted a full slate of Republican poll worker candidates. reported the Minnesota Star Tribune.

    Mackowiak said in the email that the group reached out to the RNC “seeking help in rectifying the situation.” (One of the RNC’s outside attorneys helped draft the complaint.) But he maintained that the county Republican Party was not inspired by anyone else.

    Paul Schiff Berman, a law professor at George Washington University who reviewed the petition at the Statesman’s request, said that while the argument may be valid, the Travis County Republican Party “offers no real evidence or even factual allegations.”

    “The lawsuit simply recites Texas law and claims that the secretary is not following it, apparently based solely on the lack of parity,” Berman said. “I think the plaintiffs would need to allege something more specific – and certainly would need to offer more evidence at trial – in order to win.”

    Barry Burden, a political scientist at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, said it is “implausible” that election administrators in several states are “systematically discriminating against thousands of potential poll workers based on their partisanship.” Most likely, many of the individuals on these Republican Party lists have not taken the necessary steps to become poll workers.

    “Many communities require election volunteers to apply, complete training, or even fill out employment forms to serve,” Burden said. That’s the case in Travis County, which requires election officials to fill out a form and receive training.

    Regardless of the merit of these lawsuits, Berman and other nonpartisan political experts say the lawsuits are just another component of a broad national effort by the Republican Party to cultivate doubt about the election results should Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump lose the race. before Vice President Kamala. Harris.

    Lawsuits have played a critical role in this effort.

    The RNC, co-chaired by Lara Trump, the former president’s daughter-in-law, has hit courts across the country with a flurry of litigation ahead of Tuesday’s election, filing more than 100 election-related lawsuits. USA Today reported in mid-October.

    Berman said: “They are largely presenting themselves as part of a Republican campaign to try to discredit any election results that might go against Donald Trump and the Republican Party.”

    He also said the Republican Party has actively worked to place its supporters in election-related positions since 2020, “when their efforts to overturn the election were thwarted.”

    Brandon Rottinghaus, a political scientist at the University of Houston, said the evidence the GOP has presented in such cases “tends to be pretty thin, but the policy at issue is, regardless, powerful.”

    “These types of lawsuits can create doubt in the minds of voters about the integrity of the process; that is the most pernicious result,” he said.

    Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton, a fierce Trump ally, has been a big part of the effort.

    paxton, who led a failed effort in 2020 to prevent several states from certifying their election results, has filed numerous election-related lawsuits this cycle, including a lawsuit against the Biden administration for refusing to verify the citizenship status of some registered voters in the state.

    In addition to the lawsuit, the Travis County Republican Party filed complaints with Paxton’s office and the Texas Secretary of State. A spokesperson for the secretary of state’s office said they could not comment on the pending complaints. Paxton’s office did not respond to emailed questions.

    at least one other The local Republican Party in Texas has leveled accusations of partisanship in the staffing of poll workers. But Travis County appears to be the only major urban county in Texas with a lawsuit on the matter.

    Rottinghaus, a political scientist at the University of Houston, said this makes sense given Mackowiak’s modus operandi. While other local GOP chairs may prefer to drop bombs online, Rottinghaus said Mackowiak operates more strategically. At least in a momentHe also had his eye on the state party chair position, and Rottinghaus noted that the Texas Republican Party so far appears to be cautious about filing election-related lawsuits.

    “He has always been willing to fight for his party’s causes, and in a fairly direct way,” Rottinghaus said. “This gives him a platform to pursue his preferred partisan course, regardless of what the party is doing at the state level.”

    The Travis Republican Party recently promoted as “a leader among Texas county parties when it comes to defending the integrity of our vote.”

    “As long as I am president of TCRP, we will hold local governments accountable when they violate our rights and risk election integrity,” Mackowiak said last week.

    It remains to be seen whether the Texas Supreme Court will rule on Mackowiak’s emergency appeal before Election Day. Polls will open at 7 a.m. Tuesday.

    Mackowiak said in his email to the American-Statesman that the county party would also consult with the Texas Legislature.

    “This clear violation of state law cannot be allowed,” he said.

    Sakege
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