Texas Official Overseeing 2.5 Million Voters Goes Missing
Texas Official Overseeing 2.5 Million Voters Goes Missing
n elected official in charge of voter registration and tax collection in Texas hasn't swiped into her office for around four years according to an investigation by The Houston Chronicle.
Tax Assessor-Collector Ann Harris Bennett, who is responsible for the records of over 2.5 million voters, last accessed her office building in late 2020 according to county records that were seen by the newspaper. The Democrat, who assumed office in 2017 and is not seeking re-election in November, has oversight over voter registrations in Harris County, the most populous in Texas, which includes the city of Houston.
County records also show Bennett has only sent 18 emails from her work account so far this year, excluding approving staff absence requests, some of which were simply forwarding on other messages.
The revelation comes just weeks before the bitterly contested 2024 presidential election, with polling aggregation site FiveThirtyEight analysis showing Democrat Kamala Harris ahead of Republican Donald Trump by 1.9 percentage points on a nationwide basis. Election integrity is a major concern during the presidential race, following the 2020 contest which Trump claimed was rigged against him, though this allegation was repeatedly rejected in court and by independent election observers.
In an X post last month Trump said that those who "cheated" during the 2020 presidential election will face criminal prosecution and "long term prison sentences" if he is elected in November.
The Houston Chronicle states that Bennett swiped into her office 92 times in 2019, then seven times in 2020, with her last entry being recorded as in October of that year. In 2023 she was paid a salary of $1,711,199 according to the Harris County auditor's office.
Her prolonged absence from public view raises questions about what she has been doing since she was reelected in 2020.
Newsweek contacted Ann Harris Bennett's office and her spokesperson Laura Smith for comment on Tuesday via email, telephone and voicemail message outside of regular office hours.
In October 2023 Bennett released a statement on Facebook saying she would not be seeking re-election as tax assessor-collector as she wanted to "focus on my family and my health" and "give someone else an opportunity to work for Harris County residents."
In 2020 an independent elections office was created for Harris County after the Democratic majority on the Commissioners Court backed the move in a 3-2 ruling along party lines. This was opposed by Bennett, who said it undermined "checks and balances," along with Harris County Clerk Diane Trautman.
However, in 2023 the state legislature abolished the elections office, sparking a legal battle and handing significant power back to Bennett.
Polling suggests Trump will win the 2024 presidential election in Texas, as he did in 2020 and 2016. A survey of 950 likely Texas voters conducted by Emerson College Polling/The Hill/Nexstar Media between September 22-24 gave Trump a five-point lead in the state, with 51 percent of the vote against 46 percent for Harris.
However, Democrats have been pouring resources into Colin Allred's bid to unseat Texas Sen. Ted Cruz. During the third quarter of 2024 Allred, who is currently a House representative, raised $30.3 million according to campaign finance filings, well ahead of Cruz who pulled in $21 million across three accounts.
Recent polling has given Cruz a lead over Allred of between one and seven percentage points.
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