HOUSTON – Texas and Harris County Democrats addressed what they said are continuing attacks made by Republicans on local voters during Friday’s press conference, according to a news release.
Democrats also called out the repeated accusations made by Gov. Greg Abbott’s appointed secretary of state and the impact it has made on the Primary Election.
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Democrats and Republicans have been going back and forth on properly managing the elections in Harris County since Tuesday.
Texas Democratic Party Chair Gilberto Hinojosa said Democrats will not let Republicans shift blame on their consequence of their administration due to Senate Bill 1.
“We won’t be your scapegoat,” Hinojosa said.
He said the SB1 caused lots of confusion with voters and discouraged people to go out to vote.
“It was not an accidental confusion, it was an intentional confusion, design to prevent people from voting and we are here today to tell the people of the state of Texas that we will not tolerate that, that we will start a campaign called “Let the People Vote,’” Hinojosa said.
State Rep. Gene Wu said he is not surprised by the delay in counting votes, mail ballot application rejection and the attacks made by the Republican party because he knew this would happen after the SB1 bill was approved.
“This is what they intended. We told ya’ll over and over again that hundreds of thousands of mail in ballots will be rejected for no good reason because of their law,” Wu said. “We told them that these laws that they pass would create massive delays, why are we surprised? If you want safety, if you want security, there is a time cost.”
Former County Clerk Chris Hollins said regardless of race, party or age, you could vote safely in Harris County before SB1. Hollins said the results spoke for themselves after 1.1 million residents came out to vote in 2020, setting a national standard. He said Republicans in Austin went to work to make voting more difficult, less safe and accessible.
“Our governor, so many Republicans in Austin, went to work immediately and begin to break down these threads of our Democracy to make it harder for Texans like you and me, for folks in Houston, who are older and have disabilities to break down their constitutional right to vote,” Hollins said.
Pam Gaskin, a member of League of Women Voters, who says she was suppressed vote by mail, said every county has damaged ballots and a labor intensive processes to get it right. Gaskin had a message to the Republican party, stating they have made a mistake with Senate Bill 1, they need to admit their mistakes and fix this so people have a right to vote.
RELATED: Harris County Elections releases unofficial results from March 1 Primary Election Thursday
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This story will be updated shortly.