Trump asks for audit of state’s 2020 election results, ‘despite my big win in Texas’
Former President Donald Trump has asked Texas Gov. Greg Abbott to add an audit of the 2020 election results to the special session call.
Lawmakers started their third special session on Monday, where they’re tasked with taking up redistricting among other items. Only Abbott sets what’s on the agenda for a special session. Trump — asserting that “Texans have big questions about the November 2020 Election” — would like one of those items to be an audit of the November general election, including the in the presidential race.
The Justice Department has said there was no evidence of widespread fraud in the election that would have altered its outcome. Still, Trump has repeatedly made false claims of voter fraud.
Trump, a Republican, lost the election against President Joe Biden, a Democrat, receiving about about 47% of the votes nationwide to to Biden’s 51%. Trump won in Texas, where he received 52% of the votes. In Tarrant County, Biden narrowly won with 49.3% of votes to Trump’s 49.1%.
“Despite my big win in Texas, I hear Texans want an election audit!” Trump said in a Thursday letter to Abbott. The letter was distributed via email by the Save America PAC affiliated with Trump.
Trump called for the passage of House Bill 16, authored by Rep. Steve Toth, R- The Woodlands, and Rep. Terry Wilson, R-Marble Falls. The bill creates a process for the audit of suspected irregularities in future elections, allowing candidates, party chairs, presiding judges and certain political committees to request a review.
The bill as filed allows for an audit of 2020 general election results for state and county offices. According to the bill, if there are more than five races identified in a request for review, a county clerk would be tasked with randomly selecting five races. One of those races must be the race for president and vice president, a federal office, a statewide office, a state senate or a state representative.
A similar piece of legislation passed the Senate during a previous special session but wasn’t considered in the House. Toth wrote on Twitter on Thursday he is “thankful to have President Trump’s support for HB 16 calling for an audit of the 2020 election.”
Trump wrote in the letter that the bill “specifically addresses the 2020 Presidential Election,” but that’s not the case. However, Toth said he and Sen. Bettencourt, R-Houston, are working on a committee substitute that would include the presidential race and other election results. He described the current bill as a “placeholder.”
“At the end of the day, the purpose of this really more than any single thing, it’s just to look at where there could have been voter irregularities.,” he said. “You don’t have to be focused on the presidential election or the state elections, we’re just trying to find out if there’s fraud, meaning if people who shouldn’t have voted voted. But yeah, it’s going to apply to everybody.”
Toth declined to speculate on whether Trump’s letter would create traction for it being added to the special session agenda.
In the letter, Trump calls on Texas to “act now” during the special session, which can last up to 30 days. He notes that paper ballots are kept for 22 months after the election.
“Governor Abbott, we need a ‘Forensic Audit of the 2020 Election’ added to the call,” the letter reads. “Texans know voting fraud occurred in some of their counties. Let’s get to the bottom of the 2020 Presidential Election Scam!”
An August poll by the Texas Politics Project at The University of Texas at Austin found 74% of voters polled think Texas election results are somewhat or very accurate, compared to 19% who believe they’re somewhat or very inaccurate. Of Republicans polled, 67% believed they were somewhat or very accurate.
Abbott’s office did not immediately return a request for comment.
This story was originally published September 23, 2021 at 11:43 AM.
CORRECTION: Biden won Tarrant County in November 2020 with 49.3% of votes. An earlier version of this story misstated the figure.
