Texas judge orders new election after GOP lawsuit challenged 2022 election result in Houston area

HOUSTON (AP) — A Texas judge has ruled in favor of a Republican candidate challenging the results in a 2022 judicial race and ordered that a new election be held in the nation’s third-most populous county, a Democratic stronghold that’s been beset by GOP efforts to dictate how ballots are cast.

A losing GOP candidate in a November 2022 judicial race had filed a lawsuit calling for a new election in her contest in Harris County, where Houston is located. Republican Tami Pierce lost her race to be a criminal court judge to the Democratic incumbent, DaSean Jones, by 449 votes.

Pierce blamed her defeat on allegations that illegal votes were cast by people who did not live in the county and that some ballots lacked needed signatures and other information. In court documents, Jones’ attorney, Oliver Brown, argued that Pierce could not prove there were sufficient illegal or mistaken votes cast in the judicial race that would “materially affect this election.”

But in a 32-page ruling issued Wednesday, visiting Judge David Peeples ruled in favor of Pierce, saying 1,430 illegal votes were cast in the race.

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