From the book Ballot Battles:
In Texas the institution currently empowered to adjudicate a disputed election is its legislature, far from the ideal institution for the dispute. If Texas experiences a ballot-counting dispute in a close gubernatorial election it is hard enough to imagine the state’s legislature resolving that dispute fairly, according to the merits of the case, rather than purely as an exercise of power by whichever party happens to be dominant in the legislature at the time…
A future dispute over ballots in a Texas gubernatorial election is likely to end up in a federal court under some sort of claim based on the precedents of Bush v. Gore and Roe v. Alabama. Moreover, unlike in 1948, the federal judiciary now has jurisdiction over the merits of the claim. The federal court would demand that the state’s vote-counting meet federal constitutional standards for fairness…
Ballot Battles, p. 352-353
Beto O’Rourke is still trailing Texas Governor Gregg Abbot, by a lot. But if the race tightens further, this looming disaster is something to keep in mind.
Hapgood 