Darryl Blackburn is facing six felony charges of theft and tampering after an investigation revealed a paper ballot shortage at more than 100 polling locations in the county. Conveniently for Democrats, it turns out that there were insufficient paper ballots in many of the county's Republican precincts.
The charges came after Texas Governor Greg Abbott called for an investigation into what he described as “widespread problems” with voting and elections in Harris County in November 2022. He called on the state's attorney general's office as well as the Texas Rangers and the Secretary of State to look into the allegations of improprieties and emphasized the importance of preserving election integrity.
At the time, Abbott said: “The allegations of election improprieties in our state’s largest county may result from anything ranging from malfeasance to blatant criminal conduct.”
“Voters in Harris County were frustrated by confusion and delays including missing keys, insufficient paper ballots in Republican precincts, staffing problems, and more,” he added.
Outgoing Democrat District Attorney Kim Ogg, who announced the charges this week, described the situation as a “failure” and criticized Blackburn for taking away people's right to vote.
She stated: “Mr. Blackburn not only stole thousands of dollars from Harris County in the sense that he lied on timesheets, but much more importantly, he stole individuals’ rights to vote, a basic constitutional right in our democracy because people on both sides were delayed in their voting, halted in their voting, rerouted in their voting.”
Deliberate election interference or greed and laziness?
The DA suggested that Blackburn's motive was greed rather than any intention to interfere with the results of the election. He is facing up to two years in prison for each of five charges of tampering with evidence, and up to 10 years for a charge of theft by a public servant.
Blackburn worked as a data analyst for the Harris County election administrator's office but was also making money from a second full-time job for an energy company. Instead of allocating the ballots correctly to ensure there would be enough, he simply divided the number of overall polling locations by the number of papers he had, and his sloppy work ended up putting Republican voters in Harris County at a huge disadvantage.
No matter how much the DA tries to claim that there was no intent to change the results of the election, there is no denying that this was the result. Whether it is simply a question of extreme laziness as Ogg claims or part of a conspiracy to disenfranchise Republican voters does not matter; the fact remains that it did affect voters and possibly the outcome of the election.
Blackburn was reportedly bringing in more than $90,000 from the county for a job he was performing improperly, as well as more than $250,000 from his energy sector job. On top of that, he had the audacity to take paternity leave from his job with the county, collecting benefits while still earning money from both jobs despite failing to fulfill his duty to the county.
As a result of his behavior, many people in Harris County have lost faith in the election process, and if his actions were indeed unintentional, it is easy to imagine how much damage can be caused when someone deliberately seeks to manipulate the vote.
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