TEXAS, USA — Just last month, Texas voters overwhelmingly approved property tax relief and cost-of-living raises for some retired teachers.
But voters may have to wait longer than expected to see the benefits from both propositions after lawsuits were filed challenging the results of the November election.
And State Sen. Sarah Eckhardt (D-Austin) says Republicans only have themselves to blame.
“I think it’s possible that there will be delay and that will be extremely unfortunate,” Sen. Eckhardt told us on Inside Texas Politics. “After more than a decade of feeding a constituency, frankly, falsehoods about the integrity of elections, that’s what happens when you tell folks that there are things wrong with the elections process that aren’t at all wrong with it.”
The six lawsuits filed by right wing activists seek to nullify the results of the November election, arguing that election machines used statewide were not properly certified and were illegally connected to the internet.
That would, ultimately, throw out the results of all 14 constitutional amendments.
None of the lawsuits are expected to succeed, but the possibility of them slowing down the implementation process is very real because none of the amendments can take effect until the lawsuits are resolved.
So Senate Republicans introduced a bill at the end of the fourth special session seeking to preserve their priority policies.
SB 6 would speed up the timeline for courts to resolve election challenges.
The measure passed on a 23 – 1 vote.
That lone “no” vote belonged to Eckhardt.
The Democrat told us she thinks the bill might have led to unintended consequences and dragged out the delay process even longer.
“I think that the bill, because it was quite rushed, actually would have given a potentially frivolous lawsuit an actual good legal claim, actually possibly slowing down the implementation of wildly popular propositions getting implemented,” she said.
But the House adjourned before taking any action on SB 6, leading to the legislation’s demise.
State officials have since argued in court that the lawsuits were not served properly, and that the Governor canvassed the results, making the lawsuits invalid.
But it’s not clear if this legal tactic will work as some experts say a judge would still need to make a ruling to end the election challenges.