Harris County finally releases election results after denied GOP petition stopped vote counts

The Harris County Elections Division released the final, unofficial primary elections results early Thursday, following a GOP petition to impound the records which stopped vote counts hours earlier. Citing malfunctions and a lack of testing of election machinery, Harris County Republicans alleged their party's voters experienced irregularities that affected their vote count, according to the petition. "For example, some voters were able to successfully submit their votes for the first page of their ballot but were unable to submit their votes for the second page of their ballot," the petition, filed by Harris County Republican Party Chairman Cindy Siegel, states. Republicans also alleged in the petition that improperly tested election machinery provided to them at various locations had issues with scanning ballots.

In a statement Thursday morning, Siegel called Tuesday's primary in Harris County a "fiasco" and blamed County Judge Lina Hidalgo and Elections Administrator Isabel Longoria. "The fault lies with Lina Hidalgo and the management of this primary that both parties contracted the Harris County elections administrator to run," Siegel stated. "What happened during this primary in terms of running an election is not acceptable." The petition, looking to impound the county's elections records, was filed at 5:18 p.m. Wednesday, halting the vote count just before the 7 p.m. deadline. Judge Ursula Hall of the 165th District Court denied the petition, according to court records, instructing Longoria to provide a status update at 11:30 p.m. and allowing the vote count to resume almost two hours after it had been stopped. "At the time the petition was filed and the Central Count Board halted counting, Harris County Elections had tabulated approximately 99 percent of the ballots cast on Election Night," Longoria said in an email Wednesday night. The county sent out the email detailing Tuesday's primary results for both parties at 12:37 a.m. Thursday.