TRAVIS COUNTY, Texas — On Friday, Travis County District Attorney José Garza announced that misdemeanor criminal charging instruments, or informations, have been filed against a Travis County poll watcher arrested in 2020.
The informations are related to two charges against Jennifer Fleck, criminal trespass and perjury, in regard to her alleged actions on Nov. 2, 2020.
In 2020, Fleck told KVUE that when she was poll watching, she didn't feel like the office was being transparent during the vote count.
"The room is about 20 feet deep. So, there's election activity happening at the back of the room, all in the room, anything happening at the back of the room, we could not see. They wouldn't allow us to ask questions," Fleck said at the time. "The law allows poll watchers to sit or stand mere activity and observe ballots being processed and tallied and reports being generated. None of that was possible."
So she said she started taking pictures.
"I was documenting illegal activity, in my opinion, and they asked me to leave. I refused. The sheriff disappeared for about another hour, along with the Travis County officials. When they came back, they asked me to leave again. I refused. He said, 'If you're not going to leave, they're going to charge you with criminal trespass and I'm going to have to arrest you.' I said, 'OK,' and I didn't resist arrest, but I wasn't going to leave on my own volition because I was there to do a job and they were obstructing poll watchers," said Fleck.
Garza's Office was appointed to prosecute the misdemeanor cases in place of the Travis County Attorney's Office, which represented the Travis County Clerk in civil litigation as the facts of this case came to light.
“Our state’s election laws prohibit poll watchers from filming and photographing during the election count process to prevent any interference and protect the legitimacy of the election outcome,” said Garza. “Our office will ensure a fair election by guarding against any interference and holding accountable anyone violating our election laws.”
Fleck released the following statement to KVUE on Sunday:
"The evidence will show that the Travis County election officials at Central Count violated our election laws and actively prohibited a free and fair election for all voters. I am in agreement with District Attorney José Garcia and look forward to holding accountable anyone and everyone violating our election laws."
Fleck has a court date set for Nov. 3, 2022, in County Criminal Court #5 in Travis County.
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