Harris County Spent Nearly 40+ million on the 2020 Presidential Election.

When the Pandemic hit during our election year, the virus transformed many processes. Most importantly, our Presidential Election. When I began to scrutinize the amount of money which was spent during my county’s election, it was quite shocking the amount of money which was spent in the 2020 Presidential Election as opposed to any other election held in the county. For perspective, in 2020, the Election cost the County $42 million and in 2016, the election cost only $3.6 million.

In 2020, Harris County had allocated a budget of 12 million to run the elections.

When the pandemic hit, Harris County Clerk Diane Trautman came into Commissioners Court requesting an additional 12 million so the county could provide mail-in-ballots citing the pandemic.

Referencing Holly Hansen’s reporting from the Texan “In her request to the commissioners, Trautman said she wanted to scale up the elections division to process as many as 2.4 million mail voters. She claimed that ballot costs would increase by $4.60 to $7.73 per ballot due to printing, mailing, and processing costs, and that those estimates included costs for sanitization of polling sites and advertising to inform voters of the by-mail option.

Trautman did not, however, provide any breakdown of her cost estimates, leading to questions from the two Republican members of the commissioners’ court.

“I want to know why this request for $12 million is so vague,” said Commissioner Steve Radack (R).

Commissioner Jack Cagle (R) noted that during the last presidential election in 2016 there were only 2.2 million registered voters, and 1.2 million ballots cast in Harris County. In 2018 he said there were only 1.2 million ballots cast.”

Commissioner Rodney Ellis piped in with his usual rhetoric of racial bating and accused the Republican members of the court of reluctance to approve the funds due to “philosophical differences” regarding mail balloting.

“It’s personal for me; I’m making this motion in honor of my daddy, and people like him who had to pay a poll tax to vote,” said Ellis. “So I’m going to vote that we give Dr. Trautman the right to spend up to 12 million dollars to get ready for these next two important Democratic roll calls elections.”

The vote passed 3-2 party line Democrats.

Right after this vote passed Diane Trautman resigned from her position citing “health issues”

Upon Diane Trautman’s resignation, the Harris County Commissioners court voted in 34 year old Chris Hollins, the State Party Vice Chair for the DNC as interim county clerk. Another 3-2 party line vote (D) The motion was set forth by Commissioner Adrian Garcia and Ellis seconded the motion. Chris had worked for Mckinsey, Obama and had been cited for “wanting to turn Texas Blue” he was very vocal about his hatred of President Trump. Hardly a partisan choice to be holding our 2020 Presidential Elections.

In August of 2020, Chris Hollins went before commissioners court to request an additional $17 million dollars so he could implement his “23-Point S.A.F.E Plan” You can read more about the exchange in commissioners court here. What I found incredibly damming with the vendors Mr. Hollins had used, they all seemed to have ties to him through organizations he was involved with. Alongside the fact that some of the contract awards were for $49,999.99 bringing them just under the $50,000 threshold that would have triggered a bid requirement. The county purchasing agent Dewight Dopslauf told commissioners that proper procurement procedures had not been followed and some of the vendors had already been performing election-related work under Hollins, despite not having been vetted or approved by the county. He also said he had not received scope documents detailing exact duties for several of the vendors in question.

Below is an e-mail sent from Michael Winn (One of Rodney Ellis trusted Advisors) To CTCL requesting COVID-19 Grant Funds for the 2020 Presidential Election. Again, he claims there will be 2.4 million voters when our county in prior elections the voter turnout is normally 1.2 million. SOS State Registered Voters in Harris County

After Michael Winn and Chris Hollins applied for the CTCL Covid Relief grant, they were awarded 9.6 million. Again, commissioners court accepted the grant under a 3-2 party line vote (Democrat) even when Commissioners Jack Cagle and Steve Radack both brought up legitimate concerns regarding what “strings could be attached to accepting these funds”

I found that even though the county spent nearly $42 million on the 2020 Election, many of the Republican Precincts ran into long wait lines, and the county clerk had *strategically* placed most of the voting machines predominantly in democrat precincts, specifically Rodney Ellis’s precinct. You can see the video here from commissioners court, if you pay close attention you notice that Rodney Ellis is laughing in the bottom of the zoom:
Democrat Gerrymandering Harris County Video

What is even more bizarre, I found that the Election Administrator Isabel Longoria took $3.3 million from our counties Public Improvement Contingency Funds to cover the 2020 Election Costs nearly 11 months after the election.

Link to 3.3 million for 2020 Election from PIC funds

The Presidential Election in Harris county cost nearly $40 plus million. I guess that’s what it takes to steal an election. (my opinion)

I have hit the county with FOIA requests to get line items of how and where the money went. I will do my best to Audit where the money went and follow up the article once I receive the documents.