For years, the GOP has criticized Harris County, Texas elections for policies that undermine confidence in the system and promote incompetence. This week, their criticism was proven justified. After calls for her resignation, Harris County Elections Administrator Isabel Longoria announced that she would leave her post in July after massive failures during a recent election led to thousands of ballots not being counted properly:

Late Saturday, election officials in Harris County said that an "oversight" led to 10,000 ballots not being counted. Those votes — 6,000 Democratic and 4,000 Republican — would be added to the final tallies on Tuesday. Longoria was also criticized for a slow count that took 30 hours to complete.

The U.S. Supreme Court heard oral arguments today in two challenges to Texas' newest abortion law in Whole Women's Health v. Jackson and United States v. Texas.

The law at issue, Senate Bill 8, effectively bans most abortions from taking place once a fetal heartbeat is detected. Only two months ago, the Supreme Court declined to grant an injunction to suspend the law, with Roberts siding with the liberal Justices. The law has remained in effect since.

Another election reform bill is headed to the desk of a Republican governor. On Tuesday, the Texas Legislature approved SB 1 after Democrats attempted to block the legislation by fleeing the state in July. The New York Post reported:

The Texas Senate voted 18-13 along party lines to pass the measure after the House voted 80-41 to approve it.

On Tuesday, the Supreme Court denied the Biden Administration's request to block a Texas federal court's order to reinstate the Trump-era "Remain in Mexico" policy. The Court explained:

Biden's Border Crisis has reached an all-time high. To add to the chaos, Axios reported earlier this week that the Biden Administration has released 50,000 people who crossed the southern border illegally without giving them a court date. Unsurprisingly, only 13% of them have reported to an Immigration and Customs Enforcement office like they were directed to.

On Friday, July 16, a federal judge in Texas suspended the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program. As reported by National Review:

For the second time this year, Democratic members of the Texas Legislature fled the state in protest of proposed election reforms so that the Texas House would be unable to conduct official business due to a lack of quorum. This time, they did so via party bus and private jet. The Federalist reported:

Texas Democrats throwing a tantrum over an election integrity bill are claiming their swift exit from the state on private jets was a “sacrifice” in their fight against “voter suppression” in the state.

The RNC has won the first major battle against the attacks on Georgia's recent election reforms. On Wednesday, U.S. District Judge J.P. Boulee denied a request to halt the enforcement of provisions of the state law relating to absentee voting. The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reported:

On Sunday night, the Texas Legislature came to a screeching halt in the final hours of the legislative session when Democrat lawmakers abandoned the House floor to procedurally prevent the House from completing its business just before sine die. This move prevented an election reform package, SB 7, from being voted on due to a lack of quorum. The Wall Street Journal Editorial Board wrote:

As the Texas legislative session drew near its end Sunday, lawmakers appeared set to pass a bill overhauling the state’s elections, until Democrats did one final maneuver: They snuck out of the building. “Members, take your key and leave the chamber discreetly,” a Democratic leader in the state House told his caucus in a 10:35 p.m. text message.

As November approaches, Democrats should be starting to realize that their push to implement universal vote-by-mail may not have been such a good idea. A large number of ballots have been lost or rejected, and "emergency" changes to election laws under the guise of the COVID-19 pandemic put mail-in ballots at an even greater risk of not being counted. Recent allegations of vote fraud in Minnesota and Texas show just how dangerous the combination of expanding universal vote-by-mail and legalizing ballot harvesting could be to the security of our elections.