Despite all of the battles over the last 4 years here in Texas over election integrity, the Travis County Republican Party is having a major issue with poll workers, now with just 4 days to go until Election Day.
Travis County Republican Party Chairman Matt Mackowiak issued a press release this afternoon, to address the severe deficiencies in bipartisan staffing and polling locations.
TCRP chair Mackowiak filed a formal complaint with the Office of the Attorney General and the Secretary of State last week.
“It is totally unacceptable that large portions of our county have no Republican election judges assigned, despite our providing far more than the number of available workers needed,” said Mackowiak. “As long as I am TCRP chair, we will hold local government accountable when they violate our rights and risk election integrity. This is an egregious example, and we look forward to our day in court.”
As is documented in the filing, the Travis County Elections Department ignored repeated requests from TCRP for polling location staffing only delivering the information just four days before the start of early voting. The received information shows a severe lack of Republican presence at Early Voting and Election Day polling locations.
The Travis County Elections Department has ignored Texas election code requiring at a bare minimum the staffing of Republican Alternate Judges at each polling location from a provided list of Republican poll workers.
Currently ten (24%) of Early Voting polling locations have zero Republican alternate judges and an additional 50% have zero Republican poll workers either for the morning or evening shifts. Election Day fairs worse with 72 (41%) of polling locations having zero Republican poll workers assigned.
Even though Travis County was provided with a required list of over 900 potential Republican election workers they have only hired a small fraction of Republican poll workers.
“The Texas Election Code requires a fair and equal distribution of election judges from both political parties to monitor and work the election polling centers for both early and election day voting,” said Brenham-based attorney Andy Taylor, who prepared the filing in conjunction with the Republican National Committee where he is outside counsel. “Travis County has refused to do that, so we filed a lawsuit this morning to force them to comply. Election integrity starts with what happens at the polls, and we stand ready to ensure that fairness occurs every step of the way.”