| Houston, Texas – Last night, two Republican candidates who lost the November 2022 election in Harris County—including Alexandra del Moral Mealer, former candidate for Harris County Judge—announced they will challenge the results of their races by filling election contests. More candidates may decide to file today, the deadline for filing election contests for the 2022 election. “This is a shameful attempt by a group of losing candidates who couldn’t win the hearts and minds of Harris County voters and are now throwing nonsensical legal theories at the wall to see what sticks. Each of them should be deeply embarrassed and these claims should not be taken seriously by the public,” said Harris County Attorney Christian D. Menefee. “These losing candidates are finally laying bare what we all know to be true – for them, it’s not about improving elections or making sure our elections are secure, it’s about playing games with our democratic systems and refusing to accept the will of the voters.” The contests being filed request that the more than one million votes cast in Harris County be voided and the county hold another election for the races being challenged (e.g., Harris County Judge, 189th District Court, 180th District Court, etc.). This is the third announcement from the Harris County Republican Party that their candidates would not be accepting the will of the voters. Election contests have also been filed for the 189th District Court and House District 135. “These election contests are frivolous attempts to overturn the votes of more than a million residents in the third largest county in the country. The county will now have to spend substantial resources handling these contests, time that could instead be spent serving the people of Harris County,” added County Attorney Menefee. “Voters have moved on. Public servants have moved on. These losing candidates should move on too.” |