Congressional committees open investigation into election disinformation in Texas, 3 other states

The heads of two congressional committees have launched an investigation into election disinformation in Texas. Reps. Carolyn B. Maloney and Zoe Lofgren, chairs of the Committee on Oversight and Reform and the Committee on House Administration, respectively, requested information from election officials in four states, including Texas, relating to the use of misinformation and disinformation in recent elections. The investigation comes after a party primary marred by confusion over new mail-in voting rules and large numbers of rejected ballots resulting from new election rules passed in 2021. In a letter to Remi Garza, president of the Texas Association of Election Administrators, the Committee of Oversight and Reform referenced the controversial election law Senate Bill 1. “Texas has taken several steps that restrict Americans’ right to vote in upcoming elections and to have their votes counted fairly and accurately,” the letter states.

Garza, the election administrator for Cameron County, said he received their request and is reaching out to election officials across the state to provide the requested information to the committees. During the 2020 election, Garza said a Facebook post traced to Florida falsely stated that state-required markings on paper ballots were actually markings for ballots to be discarded. It led to his office posting statute language at polling locations about the marking. For Texas election administrators, a once quiet job has become a noisy profession with officials not used to being in the spotlight being forced to the front and center of tense political battles. “Public relations and dealing with misinformation is not something I think election administrators deal with on a regular basis when we run elections,” Garza said. “This is a whole new area and skill set that a lot of the administrators are having to come to terms with.” “Now it is a reality of our jobs,” he said. Republicans led the passage of SB 1 in 2021 amid unfounded claims of widespread voter fraud in Texas spurred by former President Donald Trump.