Does Tarrant County voter fraud threaten Texas? We checked ex-CBS correspondent’s claim
Mass voter fraud threatens Tarrant County due to elections officials sending out 7 million mail-in ballots, according to former CBS correspondent Lara Logan, but county officials quickly decried her claims as untrue.
“Texas is in real danger from fraud in this election — Tarrant County is trying to send out 7 million mail in ballots & there is no sign enough people are taking this seriously,” Logan said in a post on X Wednesday. “Ken Paxton & his office realize the threat. But too many are complacent & ignoring this.”
She did not cite any sources.
Logan, who has won numerous journalism awards, including Emmys, was a correspondent on the popular CBS News show “60 Minutes” until a 2013 story she did on the 2012 attack on U.S. diplomatic and intelligence offices in Benghazi, Libya, was discredited. A source she cited was found to have given her an inaccurate account, and Logan aired his story despite knowing that he had given a different version of events to federal investigators.
She now hosts a web-based show called “The Rest of the Story with Lara Logan,” and promotes conspiracy theories about voter fraud, COVID-19 vaccines, the Jan. 6 insurrection and other baseless narratives.
The Star-Telegram reached out to Logan for comment via the contact form on her website, but did not receive a response.
How many mail-in ballots is Tarrant County sending out?
While many comments on Logan’s post came from people who appeared to take it at face value, county officials and prominent Republicans denounced her statement as not factual.
Tarrant County Elections Administrator Clint Ludwig said the assertion is not true. The county only sends out mail-in ballots to eligible voters who request them, and his office has received 22,977 requests so far.
He referred the Star-Telegram to the county’s figures on mail-in ballots that it regularly posts on its website. As of Tuesday, his office had sent 4,705 mail-in ballots, and received 81 back.
Tarrant County’s population is just over 2.1 million, according to the latest census data.
“We follow the rules for absentee ballot by mail as outlined in the Texas Election Code,” Ludwig said in an emailed statement, citing statutes that task a county’s early voting clerk with reviewing applications for mail-in ballots and providing those ballots to eligible voters.
According to the Texas Secretary of State, eligibility for mail-in ballots is limited to voters who are:
65 years or older;
sick or disabled;
out of the county on election day and during the period for early voting by personal appearance; or
expected to give birth within three weeks before or after Election Day; or
confined in jail, but otherwise eligible.
Others in politics and government in Tarrant County also lent their voices to debunking Logan’s assertion.
When one person on X asked him if it were true, County Judge Tim O’Hare replied, “Not remotely.”
O’Hare’s office did not respond to an email seeking further comment.
Tarrant County GOP Chairman Bo French appeared interested in Logan’s numbers at first, replying at 9:14 a.m., “As the Tarrant County Chair, this is news to me. Perhaps we should talk.”
However, two minutes later, he replied: “We only have 2.5 million residents and 1.2 million registered voters. 7 million? Come on. This is absurd.”
French did not provide further comment when contacted via email.
Logan’s post harkened back to a similar post on X by Fox News personality Maria Bartiromo in August. Citing a friend’s unnamed wife, she wrote that a “massive line of immigrants” had been seen registering to vote at a driver’s license office in Weatherford.
A spokesperson for the Texas Department of Public Safety, which operates the office, told the Star-Telegram that Bartiromo’s statement was “simply false” and “kind of racist.”
This story was originally published October 2, 2024 at 2:11 PM.
