4 December 29, 2022–January 4, 2023 dallasobserver.com DALLAS OBSERVER Classified | MusiC | dish | Culture | unfair Park | Contents Month XX–Month XX, 2014 dallasobserver.com DALLAS OBSERVER | CLASSIFIED | MUSIC | DISH | MOVIES | CULTURE | NIGHT+DAY | FEATURE | SCHUTZE | UNFAIR PARK | CONTENTS | Chasing Ghosts Texas audit found “phantom voters,” but no widespread fraud in 2020 general election. BY JACOB VAUGHN T he state’s audit of the 2020 general election found no evidence of wide- spread fraud in Dallas County – no proof of the “big lie” that the presidency was stolen from Donald Trump. But problems with the county’s electronic poll books af- fected 188 voters. Additionally, the county’s administration office saw key turnover as several experienced staff members left. Texas Secretary of State John Scott re- leased a report on the audit last week. “From the beginning of my time as Texas Secretary of State, I made clear that audit process was meant to provide factual, objective informa- tion on the 2020 General Election process in Texas, and that’s exactly what we have re- leased to the public today,” Scott said in a press release. The state secretary’s Forensic Audit Divi- sion conducted the audit, which looked into how elections were run in Collin, Dallas, Harris and Tarrant counties. Tarrant and Collin are the largest Republican-controlled county governments in the state, while Dal- las and Harris are the largest Democratic- controlled county governments. Chad Ennis, director of the audit divi- sion, wrote in his executive summary of the audit that looking at counties across the po- litical spectrum made the investigation more balanced. “This approach ensures that the State of Texas can provide an honest, transparent assessment of county election offices overseen by both political parties,” Ennis wrote. Issues with Dallas County’s electronic poll books created what the audit called “phantom voters.” A voter would check in, but the electronic poll book would check in someone else. “[The Forensic Audit Division] verified this affected 188 voters,” the audit said. “[The Forensic Audit Division] was unable to determine if additional voters were af- fected due to incomplete records.” The audit also found that the county had misplaced 318 provisional votes. They were found in February 2021 after the election was certified, but only 63 of these would have counted had they been processed cor- rectly. There were also inconsistencies in the county’s mail-in ballot count compared with the election canvass. Records showed that 21 voters got credit for voting by mail but the audit found their ballots were un- opened in sealed carrier envelopes. A single person also helped 393 voters complete mail ballot applications, according to the audit. Nic Solorzano, the communications manager for the Dallas County Elections Department, told the Observer by email that the county was still looking over the results of the audit but did not provide any further comments. The most serious issues appear to have taken place in Harris County, according to the audit. “These issues were so severe that [the Forensic Audit Division] notified Harris County of our preliminary findings by letter prior to the 2022 General Election,” the au- dit said. Mobile ballot boxes with some 184,999 cast vote records did not have proper chain of custody in at least 14 polling locations. The county also wasn’t able to provide docu- mentation for 17 mobile ballot boxes that ac- counted for 124,630 cast votes. Poll book records for at least 26 early voting locations and eight Election Day polling locations didn’t match the audit logs for those loca- tions. The auditors asked each county to provide a list of early voting or Election Day polling locations with discrepancies of 1 per- cent or more between the number of voters who checked in and the number of votes cast. Harris was the only county that did not provide this list. Elections in Tarrant and Collin were run smoothly more or less, according to the audit. The way Tarrant County labeled electronic media that contained mail bal- lots made tracking ballots difficult, ac- cording to the audit. Election workers are supposed to print what are called zero tapes before polls open. These are slips of paper printed by the vote tabulators to make sure no ballots or votes are already stored in the machines’ memory. Election workers in Tarrant County weren’t always consistent in printing off zero tapes before polls opened. Other than that, the audit said, “Tarrant County administers a qual- ity, transparent election.” The election wasn’t run perfectly in Col- lin County, but the audit said it “proved to be the model of how to run elections in Texas.” The audit found 21 voters in Collin County had received ballots by mail although they weren’t entitled to vote by mail. “Texas has some of the strongest and most effective transparency measures in the country when it comes to administering and auditing elections,” Scott said. “The Texas forensic election audit – which is, by far, the largest undertaken in the nation to date – demonstrates how these measures can and should be used to make sure Texas voters can have confidence in the outcome of any given election, as well as which areas coun- ties need to address to restore confidence going forward.” ▼ IMMIGRATION WELCOMING COMMITTEE REGARDLESS OF TITLE 42’S STATUS, DALLAS GROUP HELPS BUSLOADS OF MIGRANTS WITH COMPASSION. BY KELLY DEARMORE D ozens of migrants arrived in Dallas last week after a three-hour bus ride from one of the several detention centers in Texas, where thousands of other migrants are still being processed for entry into the United States. For most, Oak Lawn United Methodist Church is but a brief pit stop on a lengthy journey. Almas Muscatwalla of Faith Forward Dallas sounds calm over the phone. When we talk she’s in the middle of helping 20 newly arrived migrants arrange the next steps in their new country. But instead of sounding rushed or frenzied, as one might expect of someone coordinating such an un- dertaking, she sounds like this is business as usual, like she’s been here and done this many times before. That’s because Faith Forward has been doing this for years. She says that since 2018 her group has partnered with churches, or- ganizations and the city to help migrants find their way to family members in other parts of the country or to the places where their immigration court hearings will be held. Immigration in its various forms is one of the hottest of hot button issues today, and it doesn’t take much for people to form pas- sionate opinions about what they’re seeing on cable news and the headlines they skim on social media. But this isn’t like when Dal- las sheltered thousands of immigrant boys in the Kay Bailey Hutchinson Convention Center in 2021 for weeks and months at a time, nor is it like what Texas Gov. Greg Ab- bott has been doing with his migrant busing in recent months. Muscatwalla says many news headlines and preconceived notions really don’t fit what is happening in town right now. Dallas isn’t being turned into a North Texas version of El Paso. For starters, hardly any of the migrants arriving last week in Dallas require over- night shelter. While it’s available, Muscat- walla stresses that for those whom her group and fellow faith-based group Dallas Responds assist, the emphasis is on help- ing them move along to their next destina- tion quickly. “Right now I’m helping them book their tickets,” she said last Tuesday afternoon. “There might be one person who stays over- night because we couldn’t get a flight until early in the morning, but most will be head- ing out before the end of the day. This has been the case the whole time we’ve been do- ing this, regardless of Title 42.” Title 42 is part of the U.S. public health code that permits the rapid expulsion of asylum seekers and other migrants during public health emergencies. Former Presi- dent Donald Trump invoked Title 42 dur- ing the COVID pandemic to expel millions of migrants seeking entry to the U.S. The Biden administration attempted to end the process on Dec. 21 but was stymied by U.S. Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts, who issued a temporary stay while a challenge by several states to Biden’s decision awaits action by the court. Last week, Dallas County Judge Clay Jenkins told Fox 4 News, “This is not a gov- ernment-led initiative, but a faith-led initia- tive.” Also, Muscatwalla says that it’s important to note that the migrants arriving in Dallas by bus are doing so legally. Last Tuesday she worked with people seeking asylum from Turkey, China and Mexico. She expected another day of diverse migrant ori- gins the next day. “All the people we receive here have been processed by the Border Patrol and have an alien number,” she says. | UNFAIR PARK | Getty Images A recently completed audit in Texas uncovered no significant fraud in the 2022 election. >> p6
