According to an investigation conducted by The Houston Chronicle, an elected official responsible for voter registration and tax collection in Texas has not been present in her office for approximately four years.
According to county records, Ann Harris Bennett, the Tax Assessor-Collector responsible for maintaining records of over 2.5 million voters, last entered her office building in late 2020. As a Democrat who has held office since 2017, Bennett has been overseeing voter registrations in Harris County, the most populous county in Texas, which encompasses the city of Houston. It is worth noting that she will not be seeking re-election in November.
According to county records, Bennett’s work account has only been used to send 18 emails this year. It’s worth noting that these emails were primarily related to approving staff absence requests and forwarding other messages.
Just weeks before the highly anticipated 2024 presidential election, a surprising revelation has emerged. According to the latest analysis by polling aggregation site FiveThirtyEight, Democrat Kamala Harris is currently leading Republican Donald Trump by 1.9 percentage points on a nationwide level.
This revelation adds an extra layer of significance to the upcoming election, as the issue of election integrity continues to be a major concern. It is worth noting that the 2020 contest was marred by allegations of rigging made by Trump, despite being rejected by both the court system and independent election observers.
In a recent post, Trump stated that individuals who “cheated” during the 2020 presidential election would be subject to criminal prosecution and potentially face long-term prison sentences if he were to be elected in November.
According to a report from The Houston Chronicle, Bennett accessed her office 92 times in 2019 and only seven times in 2020. The last recorded entry was in October of that year. As per the records from the Harris County auditor’s office, Bennett received a salary of $171,199 in 2023.
People have been wondering what she has been up to since her reelection in 2020, as her absence from public view has been quite prolonged.
On Tuesday, Newsweek reached out to Ann Harris Bennett’s office and her spokesperson, Laura Smith, for comment. We contacted them via email, telephone, and even left a voicemail message outside of regular office hours.
In 2023, the elections office was abolished by the state legislature, leading to a legal battle and ultimately giving Bennett a significant boost in power.
The increase in voter registration numbers can be attributed to the dedicated efforts of the Harris County Tax Office staff. They have tirelessly added more than 200,000 voters to the voter roll. It is worth noting that their leadership in the tax office has been in place for the past 25 years, even when I served as the Tax Assessor Collector.
It is evident that Tax Assessor Collector Bennett made the correct choice a year ago by deciding not to seek re-election.
According to polling data, it is projected that Trump will emerge as the victor in the 2024 presidential election in Texas, just as he did in 2020 and 2016. A recent survey conducted by Emerson College Polling/The Hill/Nexstar Media between September 22-24, consisting of 950 likely Texas voters, revealed that Trump holds a five-point advantage in the state. With 51 percent of the vote, Trump outperforms Harris, who garnered 46 percent of support.
In the race to unseat Texas Sen. Ted Cruz, Democrats have been heavily investing in Colin Allred’s campaign. In the third quarter of 2024, Allred, currently a House representative, raised an impressive $30.3 million, outpacing Cruz who managed to bring in $21 million across three accounts, as per campaign finance filings.
Cruz is currently ahead of Allred in recent polling, with a lead ranging from one to seven percentage points.