I missed it

ICYMI

MENTONE — Sheriff Dave Landersman said he started hearing about the group aiming to take over his county a few months ago. It began with locals reporting unfamiliar faces around the Loving County courthouse and the new community center in this sparsely populated, but oil-rich area near the New Mexico border.

It wasn’t that residents never saw newcomers. Thousands of workers come and go every day, servicing the Permian Basin oil and gas boom. But groups of Black women and children were unusual; the 2020 U.S. Census had counted no African-American residents here. Many of the recent arrivals were from out of state and seemed surprised by the harsh West Texas conditions — “city people,” Landersman said.

Keionta Hinton, the owner of Fat Boys Cafe and known as Miss Kay, said her first contact was in June, when two women, two men and a girl entered the restaurant. She likes to talk to customers over Louisiana soul food, the diner’s specialty.

“We’re here to take over your county,” she recalled one of the women telling her. “I’m going to be one of your commissioners.”

“She was very serious,” Hinton said. “Not playing around.”

Moving voters into a community to gain control of its government might be considered a far-fetched strategy if it weren’t for one fact: It is occurring in Loving County, which has a long tradition of doing exactly that.

In recent years, the community of fewer than 100 residents has been riven by bitter family feuds. To gain advantage in attaining and holding power, opposing sides have tried to game the voter roll, registering far-flung family members or offering residences to visitors for the purpose of claiming their vote.

The upshot: Loving County’s tiny electorate, its history of loose voter registration and the tens of millions of dollars of oil money splashing into its treasury annually has made it both attractive — and vulnerable — to an organized group of people wanting to wrest control.

“This is the perfect place to try something like this,” acknowledged Constable Brandon Jones. “It’s the chickens coming home to roost.”

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https://www.houstonchronicle.com/news/investigations/article/loving-county-texas-election-takeover-20818355.php