SUBSCRIBE TO OUR FREE NEWSLETTER
Daily news & progressive opinion—funded by the people, not the corporations—delivered straight to your inbox.
5
#000000
#FFFFFF
5
#000000
#FFFFFF
harris county
Texas GOP Passes Bills Allowing Abbott Appointee to Take Over Democratic County's Elections
"These bills are not about election reform," said one Harris County official. "They are entirely about suppressing voters' voices."
May 29, 2023
Harris County Judge Lina Hidalgo on Sunday warned that Republican state legislators had made a "shameless power grab" by passing a pair of bills aimed at allowing the state government to take control of elections in the Democratic stronghold, which includes Houston.
Senate Bill 1933 passed on Sunday as the state's legislative session came to a close, with lawmakers sending to GOP Gov. Greg Abbott's desk a bill that could give Secretary of State Jane Nelson—who was nominated by the governor and confirmed by the state Senate—the authority to run elections under circumstances in any county with more than 3.5 million residents.
The legislation was passed two days after Senate Bill 1750, which also applies to counties above that population threshold and would abolish the nonpartisan county elections administrator position.
Harris County, which President Joe Biden won by 13 points in 2020, is the only county is Texas with a population above 3.5 million, making both bills apply only to its elections.
Hidalgo denounced the legislation as two "election subversion bills" and warned that they will set a "dangerous precedent" for Republican governors who wish to take control of voting in heavily Democratic counties.
\u201cThe two Texas election subversion bills have now passed. They remove Harris County\u2019s nonpartisan Election Administrator and empower a Republican state official to micromanage elections in Texas\u2019 largest (Democratic) County. This is a shameless power grab and dangerous precedent.\u201d— Lina Hidalgo (@Lina Hidalgo) 1685331039
"These bills are not about election reform," said Hidalgo at a press conference last week, as the legislation was advancing. "They're not about improving voters' experience. They are entirely about suppressing voters' voices. The reasoning behind these bills is nothing but a cynical charade."
Hidalgo and other officials said at that event that they plan to file a lawsuit against Abbott's administration if the governor signs the bills into law. The Texas Constitution bars state lawmakers from passing laws that apply only to specific jurisdictions, but Republicans' use of a population threshold instead of naming Harris County itself in the legislation may be used at their defense if the lawsuit moves forward.
S.B. 1750 requires Harris County to change how its elections are overseen starting September 1, when Houston will be two months away from voting for its next mayor. Harris County Clerk Teneshia Hudspeth and County Assessor Ann Harris Bennett will oversee elections in the county starting in September.
If, after Hudspeth and Bennett take over, Nelson finds "good cause to believe that a recurring pattern of problems with election administration or voter registration exists in the county," the secretary of state would be permitted to take legal action to remove the two women from office and to install members of her staff in the county's election offices.
Republicans have said Harris County didn't have enough poll workers in the March 2022 primary and that polling locations opened late and ran out of ballots during the November 2022 general election.
"The fact of the matter is, there has not been a single successful lawsuit that proves that there were any kind of problems," said Hidalgo on Sunday. "And I hope that anybody talking about this understands that you are amplifying exaggerations and rumors when you repeat the excuses that these folks are using."
\u201cAs intriguing as an impeachment of the Texas Attorney General is, we can\u2019t lose sight of the fact that legislators in Texas are still trying to disenfranchise 4.7 million of their own constituents by taking over elections in Harris County. This fight is far from over.\u201d— Lina Hidalgo (@Lina Hidalgo) 1685308988
The legislation was passed two-and-a-half months after Abbott's administration announced its takeover of the Houston Independent School District, which has made recent improvements in academic performance that were achieved despite chronic underfunding.
"Houstonians," Emily Eby French, a staff voting rights attorney at the Texas Civil Rights Project, said last week, "will soon live in a different Texas than the rest of us."
Keep ReadingShow Less
What Would Justice for Sandra Bland Actually Look Like?
Aug 07, 2015
Geneva Reed-Veal has filed a federalwrongful death lawsuit against Texas state Trooper Brian Encinia for the arrest of her daughter, Sandra Bland, in Harris County. Bland was found dead in her jail cell three days after her July 10th arrest. Bland's grieving mother is beginning to make good on her vow to "find out what happened to my baby." "This means war," said Reed-Veal at her daughter's funeral.
But Reed-Veal is not the only one angry and demanding justice. Bland's death has touched a nerve among the public, particularly people of color.
When Bland's story first emerged, I watched one of her "Sandy Speaks" videos, which are short clips she posted of herself commenting on social issues. She had a wide, warm smile and twinkling eyes and spoke with confidence and clarity: "If we can get enough white people to show that all lives matter, then maybe they'll stop killing our black brothers." I immediately loved her. And I mourned the loss of such a vibrant soul who had recorded the video just a few months earlier.
Although Bland died in a jail cell in Texas, her digital footprint has kept her alive and humanized her in a world that continues to deny the humanity of black people. Bland used the social media avenues available to her to speak out at a time when mainstream, corporate-sponsored media outlets continue to underrepresent minority voices, particularly those of African Americans, dramatically. It was only after Bland's death that we began to seek her out and listen to her opinions. However, thousands of African Americans are active on Twitter, Facebook, and other social media sites today, using the means available to them. And like Bland, they, by and large, reject wholesale the lie that the U.S. justice system works equally for all Americans.
So thoroughly did Bland's case capture the public imagination that it has inspired wild conjecture that she was already dead when she was photographed for her mug shot. Texas authorities released a surveillance video of her getting her photo taken to dispel the rumors. They also claimed that Harris County Jail employees received death threats.
In Ohio, just nine days after Bland's arrest, an unarmed African-American man named Samuel DuBose was killed by University of Cincinnati police Officer Ray Tensing during a traffic stop. Prosecutors swiftly indicted Tensing on murder charges, but only after DuBose's family demanded answers and the release of Tensing's body-camera footage.
The fact that authorities were on the defensive in both these cases, and released video evidence, is a good thing. It means the pressure being applied across the country has started to have an impact. The system of policing that is, in theory, supposed to be based on public trust has been widely exposed as being severely corrupted by racism. New evidence emerges daily as people arm themselves with documentary evidence acquired through their smartphones.
Even U.S. Attorney General Loretta Lynch, who has openly sided with police, was moved enough by the circumstances under which Bland was arrested that she said, "It shows the frustration that many minority communities feel when they feel that, you know, maybe it wouldn't have escalated in a different community." However, most white Americans do not share such speculation.
A new survey of policing in the U.S. found that great disparities continue to exist between black and white perceptions. African Americans are "nearly four times as likely as whites to describe violence against civilians by police officers as an extremely or severe problem." In contrast, "[t]wo-thirds of whites label police use of deadly force as necessary and nearly 6 in 10 say race is not a factor in decisions to use force."
This disconnect is reflected in the skewed priorities of mainstream media and its coverage of police violence, compared with, say, the killing of a Zimbabwean lion. On July 29, The Washington Post ran an op-ed headlined, "What justice for Cecil the Lion would look like." The Post's coverage of Sandra Bland was far less clear-cut and never invoked the idea of "justice" for her.
Mainstream media coverage of police killings is often biased in favor of police. Fox News coverage of DuBose's death featured guests who lectured that people need to stop resisting arrest to survive police encounters. But it's not just the far-right media: Even the Los Angeles Times has been guilty of skewed coverage. Writing about the autopsy of Skid Row resident Charly Leundeu Keunang, who Los Angeles Police Department officers killed, the paper chose the headline, "Autopsy shows man shot six times, had meth in the system." As GQ's Jeff Sharlet pointed out, the news worthy of reporting was that the police officer involved "pressed his gun into the chest of an unarmed man and shot him through the heart." Sharlet rightly complained that "the L.A. Times devotes more ink to the effects of small amounts of meth and marijuana than to the effects of a police officer pressing his gun directly into Charly's chest and pulling the trigger."
When honesty and clarity from police departments and the media is not standard operating procedure, people will imagine the worst. And they will rely less and less on institutions and more on their networks and communities, which is why so many people are convinced that Harris County officials murdered Bland in jail.
But in truth, many of us are heartbroken at the idea that Bland may indeed have killed herself. If she did, that does not absolve the state of Texas, for Bland died in state custody, either by her own hands or someone else's. When you are in police custody, you are their responsibility. The Texas Commission on Jail Standards blamed Harris County Jail authorities for not checking on Bland every hour as they were supposed to. A black Texas legislator named Garnet Coleman went even further, saying the original traffic stop was a "catalyst" for Bland's death.
To begin with, she should never have been pulled over. And, when pulled over, she should never have been arrested. Bland's arrest set off a chain reaction of events that led to her death, and for that, the state of Texas appears to deserve blame. The question is, will anyone be held accountable, and will there be justice for Bland?
Black women dying in jails around the country should not be a trend. But it is. Five black women have died mysteriously in custody since the middle of July alone. A new study found a dramatic increase in the rates of suicide in jails. More than a third of all jail deaths are attributable to suicide, and those numbers have jumped since 2009. Today, 15 out of 100,000 people in the general public commit suicide. In jail, that number jumps to 41 out of 100,000. Something about our jail system is killing people. People like Sandra Bland.
As we come upon the first anniversary of the shooting death of Michael Brown in Ferguson, Mo., it is a good time to take stock of the victories achieved by the myriad movements for racial justice since Black Lives Matter became a rallying cry. Sadly, there have been very few wins. Among them is the conviction of Mary O'Callaghan, a white female officer of the LAPD, who was charged with assaulting an African-American woman named Alesia Thomas in 2012. Thomas died shortly after the brutal assault. Despite the conviction--which was for assault, not murder--O'Callaghan will only serve 16 months in jail and could be out in five with good behavior.
Meanwhile, Ferguson police Officer Darren Wilson walks free. And in Texas, Brian Encinia has been placed on administrative leave but remains gainfully employed. Ray Tensing in Ohio and the six officers indicted in the death of Freddie Gray in Baltimore are facing murder charges. But so far, they are simply charges. Until there are convictions and sentences so serious that all cops think twice before shooting unarmed black Americans, there will be no victory. And what best constitutes victory is justice.
DuBose's friend Donte Fleming distilled the fight for racial justice, saying, "Hopefully, this will be the turning point when the rest of the world starts to understand that our lives matter," he said. "We love our children, our husbands, our fathers, and our uncles just as much as they do. We deserve the right to live and be free."
Keep ReadingShow Less
Most Popular