In their continuing quest to sow doubt in the state’s elections, Texas Senate Republicans suspended rules of order to pass a bill that would allow any county or state political party official to trigger a county-wide recount of any or all elections held in a county, the Texas Tribune reports.
While Arizona officials are still waiting for the results of a s0-called “audit” of Maricopa County ballots that started in April and was supposed to take just three weeks, Texas Republicans say the legislation will not result in a cycle of three-ring circuses.
“This bill, SB 97, is about election irregularities, giving a chance for the people involved to ask questions,” Republican state senator Paul Bettencourt of Houston said before the Senate’s vote. “This is not about anything else except what gets measured gets fixed because if we know why they’ve had that discrepancy, we can fix the problem in the future.”
Introduced Tuesday, the bill benefited from Republicans suspending rules that would require the bill to have to have public comments and go through committee hearings. It was brought to the floor Thursday, passing by a 17-14 vote. One Republican joined all Democrats to oppose the bill.
“I don’t want to end up having the same mess that’s happening right now in Arizona,” said Democratic state senator Juan “Chuy” Hinojosa of McAllen. “As you well know, it’s becoming the laughingstock of the nation.”
The bill was reportedly hastily put together by Republicans trying to leverage the return of Democrats to push through legislation while they have a quorum and a majority. The legislation makes no provision who would pay for the recounts that could happen in 254 counties simultaneously.
The bill, which has a counterpart languishing in the state house, might not make it to the desk of Republican Governor Greg Abbott before the special legislative session ends Sunday.