Good afternoon.
I'm Sherman Chao and I'm Ron Trevino.
Thanks for joining us today.
It's the day after the election and
there is a lot to cover. We have the
latest in local and state results
and more on the legal fight now over
voting issues in Harris County.
We have team coverage with Adam
Bennett and Zach Tatari live
from the Harris County election
headquarters at NRG and Arrow. Gochi
Loca has more on the issues
hundreds of voters faced yesterday.
Let's start, though with Zach,
who was breaking news.
In the race for Harris County judge.
Sherman and Ron that news coming down
late this morning that Alexandra Miller,
who was challenging Harris County Judge
Lena Hidalgo, conceding via Twitter
and announcing it on that platform.
And just within the last hour judge Hidalgo
also making a statement on Twitter,
which we want to show you, it reads.
Yesterday the people of Harris County chose
optimism over fear and people over politics.
I want to thank each and every
voter who showed up to make their
voice heard this election.
I also want to thank Miss Mueller.
For a hard fought campaign and
her military service on work.
As for Miller, she said in part on Twitter.
While we did not accomplish our goal of
changing leadership in Harris County,
we were successful in elevating
the profile of critical issues.
It's no secret that it's been one
of the most hotly contested races.
Last night,
Hidalgo spoke just before midnight
at her Edo watch party.
She didn't make a victory declaration
at that point,
but she did say she was optimistic
because of the early results.
The past four years
is part of what has me feeling so thrilled,
so good on election night,
even though we don't know,
we don't have the full results yet.
It's the work that we've done.
She now secures her second term.
Hidalgo was Harris County's first
female judge. She will hold a
press conference at 2:00 PM today,
and the process continues here at NRG
as these votes continue to be tabulated
and we continue to monitor everything
happened here happening here at NRG Arena.
Zach Tawari, let's send it back to you. All
right. Thank you, Zach.
And there is another close
race in Harris County.
Democratic challenger Leslie Buranus appears
to be taking the lead over incumbent.
Recent 4 Commissioner Jack Cagle.
You can see the numbers there on your screen.
She has 52% of the vote right now,
48% for him. Breonna served as a
Harris County Civil Court judge.
Cagle has served as Precinct
4 commissioner since 2011,
but there are still so many ballots to count.
Adam Bennett is live at NRG Arena, where
Harris County's votes are being counted.
Adam, what is the latest now?
So, Ron, this morning the final
unofficial vote total from Election
Day was published by Harris County,
but there are still hundreds,
maybe even thousands more votes to count.
That is because any mail ballots that
were postmarked by 7:00 o'clock last
night have until 5:00 o'clock this
afternoon to arrive at Harris County's
election headquarters to be counted.
Now. The results last night came in
later than we typically were expecting.
That's because the count started
later because of legal action
that kept the polls open past.
Seven, their normal closing time.
So from about 9:00 last night
through 2:30 this morning,
we saw a steady stream of election
workers from 782 polling locations
spread all over the county
arriving here at Energy Arena.
We saw them wield their equipment inside.
They scanned it in twice to make
sure that everything was there,
and then they certified the
electronic ballot.
Next,
there were just two machines
tabulating the more than
333,000 in person.
Votes cast here in Harris County,
the nation's third most populous county,
just on Election Day alone.
I think we saw by and large seventy
8090% of our polling locations
had a very good day and there's a
small percentage that we had some
hiccups on and we're going to take
a look at why we have those hiccups
and address it moving forward.
And elections Administrator Clifford Tatum,
who you just heard from there.
That was his last on camera
briefing to reporters.
That was about 12 hours ago.
I just talked with his
spokesperson a short time ago.
She told me that the administrator
went home to freshen out because
he's been here all night long,
but that she is planning on trying
to have him available here to
reporters sometime this afternoon.
A lot of questions still left to answer.
Now, besides those mail in ballots
that I mentioned earlier that have
until this afternoon to arrive,
there are also overseas ballots.
Those have until five days after
Election Day to arrive here,
as well as military ballots.
Those have until six days after Election Day.
So still potentially a lot of
votes left to count. Sure, men.
Alright. Thank you, Adam.
Likely the biggest story of the
day out there. Thank you Sir.
And you are looking at live streams of
election workers counting ballots at
the Harris County election headquarters.
They're at NRG along with Adam Bennett.
Another long day ahead for those folks and
joining us now is KH OU election law.
Analyst Chris Feldman to break down
this fight over Harris County elections.
So Chris, the Texas Supreme Court
has basically put the fate of those
provisional ballots cast after
7:00 o'clock last night on hold.
So what happens next?
Well, the decision ruling by the
Texas Supreme Court really adds
more confusion to the situation.
And it it really wasn't necessary from
the perspective of the people that cast
provisional ballots would have their
ballots reviewed by the ballot review board.
Regardless of what the Texas
Supreme Court did last night,
it's really up to the ballot board
to decide what to do with them.
And then following that,
it would be up to a candidate to challenge
the election through an election contest.
After the ballot board
reviews provisional ballots,
all the Supreme Court did was say we
dissolve the Harris County District
court's ruling saying that anyone
cast ballots after 7:00 PM must cast
ballots as provisional ballots,
which just means you put them to the side
and have them reviewed by the ballot.
Forward one way or the other,
this issue will be taken
up by the ballot board.
All these ballots were provisionally cast.
They have not actually been counted.
There was plenty of time after last
night to handle this by the battle
for the ballot board to handle this,
the Supreme Court's ruling,
again just seems to.
Add confusion to the situation.
Because at the end of the day,
those ballots weren't going to be
reviewed until 10/12/14 days down the
road when they got to the ballot board.
Why
do you think the Texas Supreme
Court got involved then?
Umm.
I mean there, there, there are,
you know, an array of reasons why
they may have gotten involved.
Let's remember who who brought this action.
Attorney General Paxton.
And he has been very critical
of the way elections are run.
He was at the January 6th insurrection.
He sued other states to prevent
them from having votes counted
pursuant to their own laws.
You might remember that from 2020.
So. There is a certainly a political
aspect to what was done because
the way we run our elections has
unfortunately become political.
The Supreme Court and the state,
state leadership has been hostile
to Harris County into Houston and
it kind of looks like politics.
All right. Chris Feldman,
our election law analyst,
thanks for joining us today.
Thank you. As always, you can
scan the QR code on your screen
so you can get.
Real time results as they come in.
We're also scrolling the results
at the bottom of your screen.