Republicans sue to block plan for counting votes in Houston — hours before polls close: report

On Tuesday, the Houston Chroniclereported that the Harris County Republican Party is suing to block the current plan to count votes in Houston — just hours before polls close in the Texas primary runoff.

"In the 18-page filing to the Texas Supreme Court around 2 p.m. on Tuesday, lawyers for the GOP argue the county is ignoring state election laws and breaking the mandatory chain of custody for ballots," reported Dug Begley. "'An essential component of the central counting station is the physical delivery of sealed ballot boxes and access to the central counting station is necessary that process to take place,' the filing states."

"County Election Administrator Isabel Longoria, who will resign July 1 after complications during the March primary, approved a system that allows election judges at polling sites to hand off ballots to law enforcement officers and deputized county staffers, who will drive the equipment to the central counting station at NRG Arena on the judges’ behalf," said the report. "Republican party officials have said this process is illegal, and advised their judges not to comply."

According to the report, Democrats are firing back over the lawsuit, with Harris County Attorney Christian Menafee saying, “Their leadership has known about the County’s election day plans for some time, yet they waited until 6 hours before the polls close to now ask a court to throw the plans out the window and put residents’ votes at risk.”

Texas has been a hotbed of GOP efforts to restrict voting access, with Republican lawmakers there passing a package of laws rolling back mail-in and drive-through voting over the high-profile protest of Democratic counterparts. Ironically, many Republican voters in Texas are reportedly being inconvenienced by these laws as well.

The state's attorney general, Ken Paxton, even filed a lawsuit to try to force several states that voted for President Joe Biden to stop counting millions of mail-in ballots in the 2020 presidential election, which the right-wing Supreme Court ultimately shot down.

NOW WATCH: Canadian national security task force is preparing for the collapse of the United States

Canadian national security task force is preparing for the collapse of the United Stateswww.youtube.com