Finally, Sidney Powell wants to tell the truth. Now how about Texas’ election liars? | Opinion

Sidney Powell lied. But that’s not the worst part.

Along the way to criminal convictions in Georgia, Powell and her team robbed the hope, energy and money of Republicans — including followers in Tarrant County and Texas suckered into her fake crusade for so-called election integrity.

The question now is whether any jury will trust Powell as a witness. The former Dallas lawyer and frequent speaker at local GOP club meetings will testify against Republican presidential front-runner Donald Trump if he is tried over fraud allegations around the 2020 election.

More than a year ago, Powell conceded in a court filing that “no reasonable person” would have believed her hyperbole about how Trump really won.

Texas and Tarrant County Republicans should listen.

As county party officials meet Oct. 23 to choose a new chairman, local and state GOP decisions are still influenced by a handful of overbearing religious activists who want a complete back-to-the-1950s overhaul of the election system.

No reasonable person would believe the Fort Worth-based Tarrant Citizens for Election Integrity, either.

The small group has promoted wild-eyed, paranoid claims about “suspicious” city and county elections.

Yet its leaders have outsized power in the Tarrant County Republican Party and at Commissioners’ Court. Next, they want county officials to completely do away with early voting, out-of-precinct voting and machine voting.

In other words, the Citizens want to take us back to 1962.

They are not suggesting this. But that’s also when Texas charged voters a $1.75 “poll tax” to discourage the poor from voting. In today’s dollars, that would be nearly $20.

A few months ago, the Citizens helped persuade commissioners to basically run off the county elections chief, Heider Garcia. He had made fun of one of the Citizens in a text message, County Judge Tim O’Hare said.

In the last two years, the Citizens sent county voters “verify” postcards and actually tracked some of us home. They wanted to know exactly why we voted where we voted.

When they pushed for stricter election law enforcement, Sheriff Bill Waybourn bowed. He assigned an “election integrity” detective for what was loudly trumpeted as a county “task force.”

Last I saw, the detective had reviewed about three dozen complaints with no action.

If you’re wondering what the Tarrant Citizens for Election Integrity really want, it’s plain.

On their website, they ask God to “remove unrighteousness” and replace “your enemy” with “righteous leaders” in Jesus’ name.

In other words, they want only their kind of conservative Christian “Citizens” running the city, county, state and country.

There’s a reason political activists want to make voters crazy in Tarrant County, whether it’s over elections, drag brunches or classroom lessons on race.

In the words of the religious conservative Patriot Mobile Action PAC, founded by Church of Christ worshippers in Grapevine, “Tarrant County is larger than 15 states. Texas is critical to the nation. Let’s keep Tarrant red to keep Texas red to save America.”

From the beginning, the purpose of Sidney Powell and her cohorts seemed to be dual:

▪ To muddy the water enough for Trump to retake power after the 2020 election, and/or

▪ To promote anger and resentment among church voters so more will turn out next election.

Powell seems ready to tell us the truth.

Will the Citizens?