A judge ordered that a 2022 Texas judicial election must be redone after finding more than a thousand illegal ballots were cast, far exceeding the margin of victory.
Judge David Peeples ruled Wednesday that the 2022 race between Republican Tami Pierce and Democrat DaSean Jones for the 180th District Court in Harris County must be held again after finding “the true outcome [of the election] cannot be determined.”
Pierce contested the race after losing by just 449 votes to incumbent Jones. Jones, however, filed a motion to dismiss — which was later rebuked by Peebles as being “frivolous.”
Peeples ultimately found 1,430 invalid votes were cast, and declared it was “not realistic or feasible to determine which candidate received those votes.”
“The court has also found that a net margin of 321 votes (1146 to 825) were cast for Jones over Pierce in the extended one hour of voting on Election Day, which the court has found resulted from an official mistake by the Harris County Elections Administration Office,” Peeples wrote.
Pierce argued, in part, that 953 votes were cast by “out-of-county residents whose [Statement of Residence forms] show on their face a residence other than Harris County” and that 245 voters “submitted incomplete [Statements of Residence], which gave no information about their residence.” If a voter has changed residences but still lives in Harris County, he must submit a Statement of Residence testifying that he still meets the residency requirements for voting there.
The judge found both of
