A North Texas Republican organization is asking a federal judge to order election officials to hand-count millions of paper ballots across the state before certifying results of the Nov. 3 midterm election.
The Potter County Republican Party and its chairman, Daniel Rogers, filed a 27-page lawsuit Tuesday in U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Texas. The lawsuit calls for extraordinary measures to counter a “perfect storm” of threats to election integrity, including foreign-made voting machine components and hostile AI.
The lawsuit was filed in Amarillo and assigned to Judge Matthew Kacsmaryk, an appointee of President Donald Trump who has overseen several major lawsuits involving conservative causes. It says that “malicious actors” – particularly “foreign adversaries” including China, Russia and Iran – could potentially “infiltrate, manipulate, and change election results reported by electronic election equipment without detection.”
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The Potter County Republican Party says electronic voting machines are vulnerable to foreign interference that could alter results of the midterm election. (Kin Man Hui, San Antonio Express-News / Staff photographer)
The lawsuit names Potter County Elections Administrator Christy Benge as a defendant and seeks to expand the case to include election administrators throughout Texas. Texas law already requires post-election hand-count audits in jurisdictions that use electronic voting systems.
However, those audits involve randomly selected voting locations and precincts rather than every ballot cast, and the plaintiffs argue that they are insufficient. According to the lawsuit, a complete manual count is necessary to detect potential discrepancies between paper ballots and electronic results.
“Only by verification of the election equipment tabulation of election results by paper record or ballot verification can Americans, and Texans, be sure of the accuracy of the election results,” the filing states.
The plaintiffs acknowledge they have no evidence that electronic voting machines have miscounted votes or been tampered with to alter election outcomes in Potter County or anywhere else in Texas. Nevertheless, they contend that existing vulnerabilities could theoretically create an unacceptable risk of future interference.
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The Potter County Republican Party says electronic voting machines are vulnerable to foreign interference that could alter results of the midterm election. (Josie Norris/San Antonio Express-News)
The complaint asserts that certifying election results without a comprehensive manual count would violate voters’ rights to due process and equal protection under the 14th Amendment.
The plaintiffs want the court to prohibit certification of the midterm election results until officials complete a statewide hand count of millions of paper ballots. They also seek full disclosure of the counting method and results, along with corrections to electronic totals if discrepancies are found.
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Hays County Election Administrator Jennifer Doinoff examines voting machines used for early voting. (Kin Man Hui, San Antonio Express-News / Staff photographer)
Although the plaintiffs say they aren’t seeking to postpone the election, invalidate legally cast ballots or replace voting machines before Nov. 3, critics argue that their demands would upend Texas’ certification process by imposing new requirements just days before the election.
“I see this case less as a serious legal argument and more as part of a broader Republican Party strategy of undermining confidence in the democratic process,” David Froomkin, a University of Houston law professor who specializes in election law and constitutional theory, told Chron.
“The plaintiffs here seem to be offering nothing but wild conjectures.”
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This article originally published at North Texas GOP wants hand count of midterm ballots to foil meddling by Iran, Russia, China.