Harris County court orders new election after 1,430 illegal votes found

Harris County voters now face a rare do-over in the 180th District Court race, and the bigger question is whether this was an isolated breakdown or a warning for other local contests. Visiting Judge David Peeples ruled that the November 2022 result, in which Democrat DaSean Jones defeated Republican Tami C. Pierce by 449 votes, could not stand after he found 1,430 illegal votes and a county election error that affected the outcome.

Peeples issued the ruling on May 15, 2024, after a two-day bench trial. The court found 983 votes were cast by people who lived outside Harris County, six provisional ballots should not have been counted, 48 mail ballots had signature or timing defects, and 445 votes were cast without a photo ID or alternate ID document. It also found that an extra hour of voting, created by an official mistake at the Harris County Elections Administration Office, gave Jones a net margin of 321 votes.

On that record, Peeples ordered Harris County to hold a new election for the district court seat. He also ordered Jones to pay roughly $65,265 to $66,000 in attorney’s fees and court costs. The case was one of 21 Republican election challenges filed after the Nov. 8, 2022, general election, but it became the only Harris County contest in that batch to end with a new election order.

The ruling quickly renewed pressure on county election officials and sharpened Republican criticism of how the 2022 election was run. The Harris County Republican Party said the decision confirmed long-running concerns about negligence and the damage such mistakes do to voter confidence. Pierce’s attorney, Paul Simpson, said the ruling meant Pierce deserved a new election, while Jones’s legal team said they would appeal.

For Harris County voters, the case puts the most basic election mechanics back under a microscope: voter registration rolls, provisional ballot review, mail ballot signatures, ID verification and any changes to voting hours. No date had been set for the redo, leaving the seat in limbo while the legal fight continued.