Harris County attorney says 4,000 voter registration challenges were invalid

Early voting begins Aug. 5 for the Harris County $2.5 billion flood mitigation package. The general election will be Aug. 25. Early voting begins Aug. 5 for the Harris County $2.5 billion flood mitigation package. The general election will be Aug. 25. Photo: File Photo / File Photo Photo: File Photo / File Photo Image 1 of / 3 Caption Close Harris County attorney says 4,000 voter registration challenges were invalid 1 / 3 Back to Gallery

The Harris County Attorney’s office said Tuesday that the 4,000 voter registrations challenged by a county Republican Party official were invalid, and the voter registrar should not have sent suspension notices to more than 1,700 county voters.

“The voter challenge they received was not in compliance with the law,” Assistant County Attorney Douglas Ray said. “If somebody doesn’t respond to that notice, we advise (the registrar) not to place voters on the suspension list.”

The development was the latest in the dispute over the registration challenges, which devolved last week into a political spat between Harris County’s Republican and Democratic parties. The Democrats alleged, without evidence, that the challenges sought to throw their voters off the rolls. Republicans chastised Ann Harris Bennett, the Democratic voter registrar, for mistakenly suspending registrations.

EARLIER: Harris County voter registrar mistakenly suspends 1,700 voter registrations

A review of the 4,037 challenges, provided to the Houston Chronicle by Bennett, shows they are spread across Harris County and do not appear to target any neighborhood or community.

Ray explained to Commissioners Court at its Tuesday meeting that to challenge a voter’s registration under state law, the challenger must have personal knowledge that the registration is inaccurate. Ray concluded that Alan Vera, the chairman of the Harris County Republican Party’s Ballot Security Committee who brought the challenges in July, could not possibly know each of the 4,037 voters on his list. Therefore, the challenges cannot be considered, he said.

Vera said Tuesday afternoon he disagrees with that interpretation and will “take follow-up actions.”

Software glitch

He previously said he and volunteers had combed through the rolls looking for voters who had listed the locations of post offices, parcel stories or places of business as their address.

State law requires voters to register at the address where they live.

Bennett did not respond to multiple requests for comment.

Bennett, who also is the county tax assessor-collector, told the court she failed to verify the challenges with the county attorney’s office before sending letters asking voters to confirm their addresses. Bennett said a software glitch caused her office to place 1,735 voters on the county’s suspension list but that the error has been corrected. She pledged to ensure each eligible voter can cast a ballot in the November elections.

Testy exchange

Under Texas law, voters whose registrations are “in suspension” still can vote after filling out address forms at the polls.

Commissioners Court members acknowledged that Bennett made a mistake in sending the letters and were satisfied with Ray’s explanation. However, Bennett’s refusal to admit her office had erred led to a testy exchange with County Judge Ed Emmett. For four minutes, the pair squared off, at times speaking over each other.

“Before you sent out the letters that scared all the voters, did you check with the county attorney?” the judge asked.

“No, sir. I followed the election code,” Bennett said.

“Well, evidently not, exactly,” Emmett replied.

Court members appeared confused when Bennett’s staff, unprompted, handed each of them rolled-up documents fastened with rubber bands. They included maps of the voter registration challenges and county Republican Party literature criticizing how Bennett’s office handled the challenged registrations.

Emmett said it seemed Bennett was injecting partisanship into the discussion about the registrations. Bennett said she was simply defending her office against false charges it attempted to disenfranchise voters.

“This put my office through a lot of turmoil,” she said.