MANILA, Philippines — Texas Gov. Greg Abbott on Thursday raised the possibility of state intervention in Harris County elections, citing a report that more than 100 voter registrations in the county were linked to private post office boxes, which can violate state election laws.
Abbott suggested on social media that Harris County, the state’s most populous and a Democratic stronghold, “should be stripped of operating elections” and that legal action against elections officials “should also be considered.”
Harris County’s interim attorney, Jonathan Fombonne, pushed back Friday, saying the governor has no authority to take over local elections or pursue criminal charges against election officials. Fombonne described Abbott’s comments as a “baseless attack on local control and the democratic process,” noting that the Harris County Tax Assessor-Collector and Voter Registrar’s Office had already addressed the issue raised by state Sen. Paul Bettencourt last November.
Tax Assessor-Collector Annette Ramirez was commended by county commissioners for investigating voter applications flagged as potentially using commercial P.O. boxes. She explained that some P.O. boxes can correspond to residential units, such as apartments, requiring careful verification before determining whether an address violates the law. Ramirez added that about 25% of flagged addresses were outside Harris County.
The secretary of state’s office confirmed the county’s actions in a Dec. 23 letter. Neither Bettencourt nor Texas Secretary of State Jane Nelson claimed that the issue had affected any ballots or election outcomes. State law generally prohibits using P.O. boxes for voter registration, though exceptions exist for active-duty military, domestic violence survivors, and certain judges.
Harris County elections have been under scrutiny since the 2020 pandemic, when the county introduced measures like drive-through voting. Subsequent state legislation in 2021 and 2023 further limited county election autonomy, including eliminating the elections administrator position and shifting voter registration to the tax office, with additional laws granting state oversight under certain circumstances.
Harris County Judge Lina Hidalgo said Thursday that state officials are politicizing the county’s elections to undermine its credibility. “That’s of course because they’re not in charge of Harris County,” Hidalgo said. “We are. I am the county judge, and they don’t like that.”
As of November 2024, Harris County had over 2.6 million registered voters, making it the largest voting jurisdiction in Texas.
