Former President Donald Trump called on Texas Gov. Greg Abbott to spearhead efforts to conduct a “forensic audit” of the 2020 election despite winning the state last November.
Trump asserted on Thursday that “Texans have big questions about the November 2020 Election” and asked Abbott to add an audit of last year’s presidential results to the state’s planning operations.
“Despite my big win in Texas, I hear Texans want an election audit!” Trump said in a Thursday letter to Abbott which was made public through the former president’s Save America PAC newsletter.
“We need HB 16, which was just filed in the Third Special Session,” Trump said. “This legislation specifically addresses the 2020 Presidential Election, and enables audits for future elections. The bill creates a process for candidates and party chairs to initiate an audit, and uses the same language as SB 97, which already passed the Texas State Senate, but did not have enough time to make it through the House during the Second Special Session.”
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Letter to Texas Governor Greg Abbott from President Donald J. Trump pic.twitter.com/ppLRobYmr4
— Liz Harrington (@realLizUSA) September 23, 2021
Trump’s petition for an audit mirrors similar calls he has made in states including Arizona, Georgia, Michigan, and Pennsylvania, and he has previously signaled support for an effort in Texas.
Lawmakers in Texas started their third special session on Monday, and the governor sets the agenda for the session, which Trump said marks “the perfect, and maybe last, opportunity to pass this audit bill.”
“Texas needs you to act now … Time is running out,” he urged Abbott. “Paper ballots in your state are only kept for 22 months after the election. Your citizens don’t trust the election system, and they want your leadership on this issue, which is the number one thing they care about. It is their most important issue—one that will affect 2022 and 2024.”
Abbott, who is running for reelection in 2022, could face pressure to move forward with a planned audit for Texas given the former president’s popularity in the historically Republican-leaning state.
The Texas governor has been a vocal supporter of a law passed in August aimed at tightening election security for the purpose of making future political races more secure, a move that caused Democrats in the state Legislature to flee the state in defiance earlier this year. Democrats alleged the voting bill was geared toward making it more difficult for minorities to cast their ballots, citing bans on 24-hour voting and drive-thru voting.
One of the most prominent election auditing efforts in the nation is expected to reveal its report about the 2020 election in Maricopa County, Arizona, on Friday. The election review, commissioned by the majority-Republican state Senate, has been marred by criticism from Democratic officials and some conservative county members for being a partisan effort spurred by Trump’s election fraud claims.
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Arizona Senate President Karen Fann has said the audit is an effort to restore voter confidence after Trump lost the state to President Joe Biden. Despite the former president’s fraud allegations, his Justice Department said last year that the 2020 election was run securely and did not corroborate his claims of widespread fraud.
