Houston Public Media/NPR: Texas legislation would allow partisan actors to request election audits

Legislation that would allow partisan actors to request an audit of elections in Texas counties passed out of the state Senate on Tuesday.

The bill is not on Republican Gov. Greg Abbott’s agenda for the current special legislative session, meaning it’s not eligible for final passage, but Abbott could add it to lawmakers’ to-do list if he chooses.

Still, Senate Bill 47, which was introduced Friday by GOP state Sen. Paul Bettencourt of Houston, passed the chamber narrowly Tuesday. The measure would allow county party leaders, candidates, judges and political committees to formally ask the Texas secretary of state’s office to review any “irregularities” in an election.

The bill analysis references a “significant number of irregularities that occurred yet were not addressed” in the November 2020 election, though it does not specifically mention what those irregularities were. …

But Stephanie Gómez, associate director of Common Cause Texas, said the bill would create chaos in the election system.

“The process creates confusion and distrust in our democracy, inflames suspicion in the myth of rampant voter fraud, and keeps alive the hopes of those who were so consumed with sowing disbelief in our democracy and chasing conspiracy theories that they literally led an attack on the U.S. Capitol not even a year ago,” Gómez said.

The bill was introduced a little more than a week after former President Donald Trump publicly requested Abbott put such a measure on the special session agenda.