We can all sleep better at night knowing this guy is off the street.
The Texas Rangers concluded an investigation into Harris County’s highly scrutinized November 2022 election, finding no evidence that there was an attempt to sway the results, District Attorney Kim Ogg announced Tuesday.
The election, marred by a ballot paper shortage that impacted voters at some polling locations across the county, sparked state legislation and more than 20 lawsuits based partly on Republican claims that county officials had deliberately allocated an insufficient amount of ballot paper to polls in conservative areas in an effort to disenfranchise GOP voters.
“Some have said this (shortage) was directed at one party,” Ogg said Tuesday. “Our investigation has not found that to be so.”
However, a former county election employee now faces charges of theft and tampering with government documents. Ogg said investigators found that Darryl Blackburn, who oversaw supplies, was working two full-time jobs during the 2022 election, which she said led to his failure to properly allocate ballot paper — a conclusion that Democratic party leadership swiftly disputed.
“Mr. Blackburn not only stole thousands of dollars from Harris County, in the sense that he lied on time sheets,” Ogg said. “Much more importantly, he stole individuals’ right to vote, a basic constitutional right in our democracy, because people on both sides were delayed in their voting, halted in their voting, rerouted in their voting.”
[…]
Harris County Democratic Party chair Mike Doyle, who attended Ogg’s news conference, blasted the district attorney for arguing that Blackburn’s alleged crime affected the election.
“This guy may well have double dipped,” Doyle said, “but it’s just another way to repeat the lie that there was an election that somebody didn’t get to vote at, which we know after weeks of testimony and years of digging, they never came up with anybody.”
According to investigators, Blackburn held a full-time job in the oil and gas industry while also working full-time for Harris County, signing false time sheets and submitting a false application for paid parental leave. On Election Day, he claimed that he worked 18 hours with the county while also getting paid for his job in The Woodlands, clocking a total of 26 hours of work that day, investigators said.
Blackburn’s attorney, Charles Flood, called the charges against his client an “abuse of power” by a district attorney who is “cynically playing politics with people’s lives.”
“This case isn’t about the election — it’s about timesheets,” Flood said in a statement. “The Texas Rangers made clear that the evidence shows no intent or attempt to influence the 2022 election, so it seems Ms. Ogg’s only motivation is to try and claim my client as some sort of consolation prize. My client is not guilty, and we look forward to defending his innocence.”
Boy, the difference between the windup and the pitch here is substantial. The only reason this is even a crime is because he was a government employee; his other company will have at most a civil complaint if they want to pursue one. And it took a year and a half and the full might of the Texas Rangers to ferret this out. Typical of the entire “election fraud” grift. Imagine if public schools had that big a disparity between their budgets and their results. Put a bow on this, and we’ll await the likely plea deal Mr. Blackburn makes with the next DA.
Isn’t Kim Ogg’s 15 mins of…fame… over already ? Time for The Apollo janitor to sweep her off the stage.