DALLAS — Dallas County Judge Clay Jenkins is squarely in the camp of critics strongly pushing back against the forensic election audits in Dallas, Tarrant, Collin and Harris counties recently announced by the Secretary of State’s office.
“The purpose of this is not a real audit. It’s just to push a political narrative that there could be fraud and therefore that justifies making it harder and harder for people in urban areas and young people to vote,” Jenkins said on Inside Texas Politics.
The Democrat says his county doesn’t have to do much of anything to physically comply with the audit. He says they’ll provide the information being sought through the Freedom of Information Act. Jenkins says he suspects Republicans will hold onto that information for months and months and months and do nothing with it.
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“And then after they look at it after the Republican primary, they’ll quietly tell us what we already know, which is that elections in America are safe and secure. And they’re also safe and secure in Collin, Tarrant, Dallas and Harris County,” said Jenkins.
Jenkins says another sign this is a pure political stunt is the fact examiners are not coming in and taking apart machines or examining voting cards. And while many specifics of the audit remain unknown, the Secretary of State’s office alluded to the fact the audit will continue through next Spring, 1.5 years after the November 2020 election.
“They’re no longer trying to win elections based on the power of their ideas or based on their competency in governing,” Judge Jenkins said. “They’re trying to win elections by stopping people from voting.”
