Judicial Election Fight Heads To Court

 Goodwill Pierre, the former Democratic candidate for state district judge in Harris County, is about to have his day in court.

 As 2 on the Beat has reported, Pierre challenged sitting Republican Judge Tad Halbach  for the 333rd  court seat  in November.

Pierre lost the election by fewer than 300 votes.

He  filed a lawsuit against the Harris County Tax Assessor Collectors office, claiming that provisional ballots were improperly rejected, and that other  “various irregularities” make it impossible to know “who really won the election.”

A hearing is scheduled on this matter for Friday, June 19, at 10:00 am at the Harris County Civil Courthouse.

Here’s the release from Pierre’s supporters: 

I know this is an important issue that needs to be resolved so that voters in Harris County have faith in the election system, but I think the reference to Juneteenth is a bit of a stretch.

After Democratic judicial candidate J. Goodwille Pierre narrowly lost his Nov. 4 bid to unseat 333rd District Judge Joseph “Tad” Halbach of Houston, a Republican, Pierre filed a petition in state district court in Harris County on Dec. 11 contesting the election. In Goodwille Pierre, Contestant v. Joseph “Tad” Halbach, Contestee, Pierre alleges that “various irregularities” make it impossible to know who really won the election. According to final election results, Pierre lost the election by 230 votes. Pierre alleges in his petition that more than 5,000 provisional ballots were not counted by the Harris County voter registrar. Now Republican Judge Cara Wood called a hearing on Juneteenth, the day Black Slaves in Texas got the word that they were free 2 years after the Emancipation Proclamation was signed by President Lincoln, to rule on a Motion for Summary Judgment. Come one and all on June 19, 2009 for Justice on Juneteenth