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Texas Gov. Gregg Abbott appointed Fort Value lawyer John Scott to supervise the state’s elections.
Scott briefly sought to assist Trump overturn the 2020 presidential ends in Pennsylvania.
The lawyer withdrew from the case a day earlier than its scheduled listening to final November.
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Texas Gov. Greg Abbott on Thursday appointed a secretary of state who briefly labored with former President Donald Trump to problem the 2020 election ends in Pennsylvania.The brand new secretary of state, John Scott, will handle elections within the Lone Star State at a time when the state has been within the nationwide highlight over its restrictive election legislation that was carried out after Trump’s 2020 election loss.The appointment additionally comes as Trump has pushed for an audit of the Texas presidential outcomes, regardless of the previous president successful the state by practically 6 factors final 12 months, together with GOP legislators proposing a controversial redistricting proposal that voting rights advocates contend would dilute the electoral power of the state’s burgeoning minority inhabitants.Scott, a Fort Value lawyer who was employed by Abbott when the Republican governor was the Texas lawyer common, will lead a restricted evaluate of the 2020 election ends in populous Collin, Dallas, Harris, and Tarrant counties. Of the three counties, Trump gained Collin, whereas Biden gained the three latter jurisdictions.
“John understands the significance of defending the integrity of our elections and constructing the Texas model on a global stage,” Abbott stated in a press release saying the appointment. “I’m assured that John’s expertise and experience will improve his oversight and management over the largest and most thorough election audit within the nation.”Scott will serve within the function on an interim foundation, as his appointment would require affirmation by the state Senate for last approval.The legislature is at present not scheduled to satisfy once more till 2023.Scott’s appointment elicited sharp blowback from Democrats and voting teams.
Rose Clouston, the voter safety director for the Texas Democratic Social gathering, criticized Scott for his involvement with GOP efforts to problem the 2020 election.”Texans deserve a chief election official who has a profession devoted to the safety of the correct to vote and never one who participated in Trump’s lawsuits undercutting our democracy,” she stated in a press release.Stephanie Gómez, the affiliate director of Widespread Trigger Texas, an open authorities group, blasted Scott as “unsuitable” for the function.”Not solely did Gov. Greg Abbott appoint somebody who labored to undermine our 2020 election for partisan pursuits, he actually waited till Texas legislators left city to keep away from the affirmation course of till 2023,” she instructed Spectrum Information. “The timing of this announcement is clearly supposed to subvert our democratic course of in a approach that enables Greg Abbott’s fully unsuitable nominee to supervise our 2022 elections with out having to face affirmation hearings.”
Scott was among the many attorneys who represented Trump because it sought to contest the presidential election ends in Pennsylvania, a swing state that Biden gained by practically 81,000 votes out of 6.9 million ballots solid.Nevertheless, Scott withdrew from the case, together with Texas state Sen. Bryan Hughes, a day earlier than the listening to final November. The election case was ultimately dismissed in courtroom.Scott additionally represented Texas in litigation concerning the state’s voter identification legislation in 2014.Hughes was the lead sponsor of the state’s restrictive voting legislation that was signed into legislation final month after fierce opposition from Democratic legislators — which led them to briefly flee the state for Washington, DC, to name consideration to Texas and to spotlight federal voting-rights laws that has languished in Congress for months attributable to GOP resistance within the US Senate.
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