All Episodes
Previous Next
March 29, 2022 - Epoch Times
19:04
10,000 Uncounted Ballots Found in County, Top Election Official Resigns; New Bill Proposed
| Copy link to current segment

Time Text
This is your daily Facts Matter Update, and I'm your host, Roman, from the Epoch Times.
And before we jump into the story, I wanted to mention that we just published a phenomenal interview between myself and this man here, Dr.
Robert Malone, over on Epoch TV. For very obvious reasons, we will now be putting that episode here on YouTube, so if you'd like to check it out, I'll throw a link to it.
It'll be down in the description box below.
Check it out when you have a moment.
And now, let's begin today's discussion by talking about election integrity.
Over in Texas, just two days ago, officials announced that they have discovered about 10,000 uncounted ballots from last week's primary election.
That's right.
Officials from the Harris County Elections Office, which just for your reference includes the city of Houston, they said that approximately 6,000 Democrat votes, as well as about 4,000 Republican votes, were not counted in the election.
And they will now be added to the final tallies.
Now, the local election officials, they blamed an alleged oversight for why the votes were not counted.
And they added this as a part of their official statement when this all came to light.
While the votes were scanned into our tabulation computer, they were not transferred and counted as a part of the unofficial final results as they should have been.
Now, just in case you are not living in the state of Texas, let me give you a bit of background on the election in question here.
On March 1st, which was about nine days ago now, Texas held a primary election, which was the first Texas election that took place after the new voter integrity laws were put into place.
You might, in fact, remember how this all played out, where last year, about 50 Democrat lawmakers within Texas, they quite literally fled the state and went to Washington, D.C. in order to not vote on the election bill.
But they did eventually return, and the election integrity measures, they were signed into law.
And about nine days ago, the first election under those new stricter rules was held.
However, as you can see, not everything went smoothly.
According to local reports, you had staffing problems, you had equipment issues, you had longer-than-usual waiting lines, and then, of course, you had about 10,000 votes, which somehow went unaccounted.
And following the discovery of those 10,000 ballots, the county elections office, they spoke to a local news outlet, and they told them this, quote, Officials are focused on ensuring that every ballot cast is accounted for through this canvassing process, and they will continue to be transparent in that process through our updates.
But as you can imagine, it is most critical that everyone on our team stay focused and commit all of their time to the task at hand.
We will be discussing this from the commissioner's court, and that will be an opportunity for broadcasters to hear from our office.
However, despite the fact that they publicly said that they were addressing the issue, the Harris County Republican Party, they went on the offensive.
To start with, here is what Cindy Siegel, who is the chairwoman of the Harris County GOP office, here's what she said in a statement.
Quote, every voter, regardless of party, should be able to have confidence that their vote has been properly counted.
Unfortunately, this is another example of the serious mismanagement of Harris County Judge Lina Hidalgo's unqualified elections administrator.
Isabel Longoria owes all Harris County voters an explanation.
And then, shortly after that statement, the Harris County GOP office, they officially filed a lawsuit against both Ms.
Longoria as well as her office for, quote, committing the worst elections fiasco in Texas history by not counting the ballots.
And it's worth mentioning that the criticism against the local elections office was actually bipartisan.
As the chairman of the Harris County Democrat Party, he released this statement as well.
We called for a post-election review of all processes.
There has not been any skirting of party responsibility, and we have been completely transparent in our desire to dig into the details of what went wrong and identify how to make corrections moving forward.
And so, facing criticism from both sides of the aisle, just yesterday, the Harris County Elections Commissioner, who is Miss Isabel Longoria, she officially offered her resignation.
Here's specifically what she said as a part of her public statement.
Quote, I remain committed to the office and its mission and hope to aid in defeating harmful rhetoric to ensure successful elections in the future.
The buck stops with me to address issues for voters and I did not meet my own standard or the standard set by commissioners.
Now, you might look at this situation and you might ask the question of whether her resignation will actually change things.
Will it actually stop these types of scenarios from happening in the future?
And the answer is not exactly clear, because this type of scenario does not appear to be limited to only one city or to even one election administration.
For instance, you might remember how last year, in the city of New York, they had a similar scenario play out during the mayor's race.
What happened was that in June of 2021, the New York City Board of Elections, they had to quite literally void the Democrat mayoral primary results after they found a discrepancy of approximately 135,000 ballots.
What happened in that particular race was that when the preliminary results came in, they showed that Eric Adams, who was the leading candidate, that he had about a 10-point lead.
However, by the very next day, his 10-point lead had shrank all the way down to two points.
Now, that in and of itself was not so surprising because New York now uses something called ranked choice voting.
So what you do is you choose your top five candidates in order, and as the candidates get eliminated one by one, Your vote gets appropriated to your second, your third, and your fourth choice.
However, after the vote tallies were actually released, campaign staffers for Eric Adams, they noticed that there was about 135,000 more votes counted than there had been reported on election night.
And so, Eric Adams, he released a public statement which said this in part, quote, The vote total just released by the Board of Elections is 100,000 plus more than the total announced on election night, raising serious questions.
We have asked the Board of Elections to explain such a massive increase and other irregularities.
And then, within just a few short hours, the New York City Board of Elections, they came out and they said that indeed there was a mistake.
They said that 135,000 test ballots were accidentally included in the official vote tally.
Here's what they said as a part of their statement.
When the cast vote records were extracted for the first poll of RCV results, it included both test and election night results, producing approximately 135,000 additional records.
The cast vote record will be regenerated and the ranked choice voting rounds will be retabulated.
And so, as you can see, these types of issues are not limited exclusively to Texas.
In fact, quite frankly, they are not even limited exclusively to America.
For instance, just last month in February, it was reported that over 200,000 mail-in ballots were discovered in Canada that were never counted during their last federal election.
Which, just for a reference, was more than the margin of error for that federal race.
And so, what is the actual solution to all of this?
Well, very obviously, that is a large question.
However, what's interesting is that there is a bill that's currently working its way through the House that would address at least this specific problem that we're seeing pop up in places like New York and Texas.
That bill, which is officially called House Resolution 4044, or otherwise known as the Vote Act, it would require local election officials to report the number of ballots that they've received as soon as the polls close.
And so what this proposed bill would do, at least in theory, is prevent situations like what we saw over in Texas, wherein after the election itself, there were suddenly 10,000 votes that were unaccounted for.
Or alternatively, like the situation that we saw play out over in New York, wherein after the polls closed, there were suddenly 130,000 more ballots than before.
Here's specifically what Congressman Byron Donalds, who is a Republican from Florida, and he's also the sponsor of this specific bill, here's how he described it during an interview with the Epoch Times just a few months back.
And by the way, after he explained that bill, I then asked Congressman Donald whether this would actually jive well with the idea of having elections be handled by the individual states rather than federally.
And here's what he said to me as a response.
Quote,
And so we'll just have to wait and see whether this solution actually gets implemented or not.
As it stands now, the bill was introduced in June of last year and has since then seemingly been stalled in the House.
Regardless, if you'd like to read more about either what happened over in Texas, In New York and Canada, or about this new piece of proposed legislation in the House, I'll throw all that into the description box below this video for you to check out, and all I ask in return is that you take a super quick moment to smash, smash, smash that like button for the YouTube algorithm.
Now, let's switch gears just a little bit and talk about national security.
Sorry.
What's this?
Well, that's a great question, Roman.
And it is today's sponsor, which is an awesome messaging and email service provider called Secure.
And it's awesome if you're the type of person that actually cares about their privacy.
Because, I mean, it's no big secret that these big tech companies are mining and remining our data all the time.
In fact, in the year 2020, it was found that over 155 million Americans, likely including you and me, have suffered some form of data breach.
And by the way, that's only what's publicly known.
However, what's happened in the past?
Well, that can stay in the past because with Secure, Your data and your messages can remain private.
And that's because Secure has all of their data centers located over in Switzerland rather than in the US or in China.
And the reason that's so important is that Switzerland has some of the strictest data privacy laws in the entire world and they are not subject to the Intrusive Cloud Act.
And if you want to know what the Cloud Act is, head on over to secure.com and watch their video on the homepage or on the video tutorials page, which is under their support section.
Now, the thing that I personally love the most about the Secure app is the privacy aspect of it.
They don't mind my data.
They don't mind my phone number.
They don't mind the phone numbers or data of my friends and family who I chat with.
But best of all is that if your friends and family don't actually use the secure app themselves, it doesn't matter.
Because the way that it works is that when you use their secure send email technology, all of your emails and your messages route to Switzerland, and then the recipient can reply using their secure reply technology.
And so everything remains private no matter what.
And the same actually goes for their messaging app as well.
And they're always coming up with new features.
In fact, the most recent one they told me about, they sent me an email here, was that they're coming up with a new feature called text to chat by invite.
So they're an innovative company and they really do care about your privacy.
And so what they're doing doesn't work with your existing big tech email account.
So check them out.
You can head on over to secure.com.
I'll throw the link into the description box below.
And when you use promo code Roman, you can get 25% off.
And the rates are not even that expensive to start with, by the way.
It's only $5 for the messenger and $10 for the email and messenger combo.
And they even offer a seven-day free trial.
So head on over to their website.
Again, it'll be linked in the description box below.
Use promo code Roman to save some money.
And now Roman in the studio, back to you.
While I was down in Florida about a week ago, I took the unique opportunity to sit down and speak with Congressman Ralph Norman, who is a Republican from South Carolina, and we discussed the balancing act that America has found itself in, which is how do we be punitive towards Putin's government without pushing Russia closer to China while at the same time dealing with the skyrocketing national debt, which, if you include all the unfunded liabilities, sits at about $130 to $150 trillion.
Take a listen.
And right now, there's sort of a humanitarian crisis unfolding.
There's quite literally a full-scale war, at least, going on between the two countries.
What do you think is the proper response for the U.S.? Just yesterday, some more sanctions were imposed, not only from the U.S., but from the West.
Do you feel like that's the proper response?
Should something else be done?
What's your opinion on that?
Robin, the sanctions are too little, too late.
The Russians have been gathering hundreds of thousands of troops for the last couple of months.
They weren't doing that to have a dinner party with Ukrainians.
And so we've been warned about this.
It's just this administration is all words.
The sanctions are not tough enough anyway.
And did it deter Russia for doing what they're doing now?
No, it did not.
And it's so sad to see the Convoys of people trying to leave.
It's so sad to hear that Americans are now at risk in Ukraine.
It's sad to see the 13 brave Ukrainians that put their life on the line and told Russia what they could do with their ship.
But, no, it's a crisis that we knew was coming, and our allies as well as our enemies see that this administration is a toothless tiger.
What they say and what they do is two different things.
They don't do anything, and that's what we're witnessing.
Unfortunately, I think Taiwan will be probably on the radar screen with China.
They're already circling the airspace.
I think the Baltic states, which is probably next after Ukraine, depending on what NATO does, if anything.
And the startling fact is, with the banking sanctions on Russia, they're not the most severe.
Why is this president doing this?
Why is this president not addressed this way before now?
Why is this president opening up the Nord Stream 2 pipeline to aid Russia?
Why are we importing oil from Russia?
All of that makes no sense.
Do you think there's any way for the U.S. to take action without pushing Russia more towards the Chinese Communist Party to do?
Because that's likely what is going to happen if they're going to continue to get pushed further and further from the West.
They're going to align more with China.
Do you conceive of any way of us sanctioning Russia or punishing them punitively for their actions, but at the same time somehow not having that China and Russia are our enemies anyway.
And as far as us getting involved, the sanctions are about all we can do.
I mean, we can't even defend or are unwilling to defend our own border.
And I think now to say that Americans have got to defend the border of Ukraine, you know, it's not going to happen now.
But no, I don't think you drive them any further apart.
They're going to do what's in their best interest.
They're going to do whatever it takes to bring down America.
And that's being seen by what they're doing.
And that's the dangerous part of the times we're living in.
That's why the constituents, not just in South Carolina, but all over this country, are telling the congressmen, We're scared.
What's going to happen?
What do we need to do?
And it shows you votes matter.
Who runs for office matters.
Who we elect.
And so it's a dangerous time.
And the uncertainty is what people don't...
They're seeing the face of an invasion.
The bloody faces of Ukrainians.
And they're wondering, can this happen to us?
And the answer is yes.
You brought up China a moment ago and the incursions in the airspace.
So right as soon as Russia began their invasion into Ukraine, there was about seven ships, seven airplanes that flew right into the Taiwan air zone, which of course, I mean, that's become a regular occurrence, but that happened there.
And then right afterwards, accidentally was leaked the directives from the propaganda department that they sent to the different publications within China.
And the directives from the CCP to the different outlets in China was to not criticize Russia because when we invade Taiwan, we want Russia to kind of back us up.
So that was the directive, the propaganda directive.
So it seems like, unfortunately, the world is moving in that direction.
What do you think would happen if, let's say, China pulls such a move on Taiwan?
What do you think the U.S. would do?
What should the U.S. do?
Two different questions, I guess.
Well, what's been the history of this administration?
Not to do anything.
Have words, but not do anything.
With Taiwan, which is a trading partner with the United States, a lot of the products that we import are made from Taiwan.
I've been to the embassy in Washington with Taiwan.
They're good people.
They've been scared to death this day would come, and I think it's now here.
Jack Keene, the four-star general, said this morning, China is cheering from the sidelines on what Russia's doing.
I'll depend on the military generals to tell us exactly what options we have.
Jack Keene seemed to think that...
The funding for the American military is below what it needs to be to really mount an effort.
When China is doing what they're doing with missiles, with their military, it's concerning.
Not to mention what they're doing in cyberspace, as Russia is doing as well.
That's a great point.
And actually, to the point about the military spending, so I've heard that from many different people that the military spending needs to be up because there's so many different world threats.
But that ties into a second point that I wanted to discuss, which is the national debt.
So that hit $30 trillion about a month ago.
Plus, if you add all the unfunded liabilities like Medicare, Medicaid, Social Security, the pensions that are going out to different government officials, it's closer to like $130 trillion.
It's out of control.
Well, rather, it's not feasible to pay it off even with tax revenue.
So a lot of congressional Republicans are saying that when they take back the House, well, if they take back the House and the Senate in the upcoming midterms, they can do something about it.
What do you think can be done to address it, to address this kind of problem that nobody's seemingly talking about?
And, well, let's start there.
What can be done to address it?
First of all, it's unsustainable.
The cliff we're getting ready to go over, we've got to put the brakes on.
The spending cannot keep going like it's been going.
I would argue that really if interest rates rise a half a percent, the $160 trillion, which you're exactly right on that, throw in the Highway Trust Fund as part of that because that's a committee that I'm very interested in because we're a growing state.
No, the only way you address it is have people in Congress who are willing to Ask on any funding program, why are we doing this?
Why are we funding the Fauci Lab?
Why are we funding the Department of Education?
Now, in and of itself, they're small items, but when you combine it all together, it will make a difference.
What are our options?
If we keep spending, D-Day will be here a lot sooner than people are saying it is.
No, I don't know.
That's one thing we're going to have to debate.
The next speaker will determine a lot of that because the speaker sets the path.
In the House, as you know, we'll control the spending.
We propose the budgets.
And so we've got to address it.
And that's one thing the Freedom Caucus will be doing.
Now, if you'd like to watch that interview in its entirety, as well as that other phenomenal interview that we recently published between myself and Dr.
Malone, well, you can find it all over on EpicTV, which is our awesome no-censorship video platform.
I'll throw a link to it.
It'll be down in the description box below.
And by the way, if you click on that link and use promo code Roman, you can get a 14-day free trial of EpicTV.
That way you can enjoy all the great content on there without paying a dime for 14 days.
Again, that link will be down in the description box below.
And then, until next time, I'm your host, Roman from the Epic Times.
Stay informed.
▲
Export Selection