Category Archives: Election 2016

Anderson maintains lead after recount

Posted on December 1, 2016 by Charles Kuffner

It’s over. After a recount, state Rep. Rodney Anderson, R-Grand Prairie, is still the apparent winner in his re-election battle against Democrat Terry Meza. It was not immediately clear what the exact official outcome of the recount was, but the … Continue reading →

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Precinct analysis: Gonzalez v Hickman

Posted on November 30, 2016 by Charles Kuffner

Ed Gonzalez scored a solid win for Sheriff, knocking out incumbent Ron Hickman to win the office back for Democrats. Let’s break it down. Dist Hickman Gonzalez Hickman% Gonzalez% ============================================= CD02 162,915 111,689 59.33% 40.67% CD07 139,292 113,853 55.02% 44.98% … Continue reading →

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Re-Endorsement watch: Sung in the special

Posted on November 30, 2016 by Charles Kuffner

The Chron reiterates their choice of Anne Sung for the HISD VII special election runoff. Anne Sung will bring a wealth of educational experience to this position, representing a district with boundaries encompassing a broad swath of near-southwest to near-northwest … Continue reading →

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Precinct analysis: Ogg v Anderson

Posted on November 29, 2016 by Charles Kuffner

Kim Ogg had the second highest vote total in Harris County this year. Let’s see how that looked at a more granular level. Dist Anderson Ogg Anderson% Ogg% ========================================== CD02 156,027 117,810 56.98% 43.02% CD07 135,065 118,837 53.20% 46.80% CD09 … Continue reading →

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Precinct analysis: District courts

Posted on November 28, 2016 by Charles Kuffner

Today we will look at the Harris County-specific judicial races, by which I mean the district courts plus two County Court benches. I’m going to begin with something a little different, which is a look at the distribution of how … Continue reading →

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HISD special election runoff will be December 10

Posted on November 22, 2016 by Charles Kuffner

I don’t believe I’ve seen a news story about this. The runoff election for the top two candidates to fill the unexpired term of outgoing HISD District VII Trustee Harvin Moore has been set for Dec. 10. Candidates competing in … Continue reading →

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Recount in HD105

Posted on November 22, 2016 by Charles Kuffner

Still not decided yet. The tight Texas House District 105 race between Republican state Rep. Rodney Anderson and Democratic challenger Terry Meza is headed for a recount. Meza trails Anderson by 69 votes, according to the latest Dallas County elections … Continue reading →

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Precinct analysis: State courts

Posted on November 21, 2016 by Charles Kuffner

We return to our tour of the precinct data with a look at the statewide judicial races. These tend to be interesting mostly as proxies for base partisan support, but there are variations that reflect qualities about the candidates. That’s … Continue reading →

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Sustaining the Harris County Democrats’ success

Posted on November 18, 2016 by Charles Kuffner

All things considered, I feel reasonably optimistic about Democratic prospects in Harris County going forward, but I felt that way in 2008 as well, so I certainly understand the inclination to be cautious. Democrats swept Harris County last Tuesday in … Continue reading →

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Precinct analysis: The RRC and the Libertarian moment

Posted on November 16, 2016 by Charles Kuffner

Back to precinct analysis, and the race that I featured in my post from yesterday, the Railroad Commissioner race. Here are the numbers: Dist Christian Yarbrough Miller Salinas =========================================== CD02 152,751 97,235 18,346 6,835 CD07 130,384 96,652 20,510 6,537 CD09 … Continue reading →

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A theory about third parties

Posted on November 15, 2016 by Charles Kuffner

Before I get to that theory, have you ever wondered about the people who vote straight ticket Libertarian or Green in Harris County? I got to wondering about them, because that’s the sort of thing that I think about at … Continue reading →

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Precinct analysis: Hillary in Harris County

Posted on November 14, 2016 by Charles Kuffner

Let’s get started with the precinct data, shall we? Here’s a Chron story from the day after the election about how things looked overall in the county. The country’s most populous swing county turned a shade bluer Tuesday, when Hillary … Continue reading →

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Statewide review: 2016 was like 2008, but not in a good way

Posted on November 13, 2016 by Charles Kuffner

There’s no point in beating around the bush, so I’ll just come out and say it: Despite the excitement about increases in voter registration and heavy early voting turnout. statewide Democratic candidates outside of Hillary Clinton generally did not do … Continue reading →

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Zena Stephens

Posted on November 13, 2016 by Charles Kuffner

Congratulations to Texas’ first black female Sheriff. While history was being made with the election of Donald Trump as president, Zena Stephens was making a little of her own in Southeast Texas by becoming the state’s first black female sheriff. … Continue reading →

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Checking in with Ed Gonzalez

Posted on November 12, 2016 by Charles Kuffner

Also known as Harris County Sheriff-elect Ed Gonzalez. Ed Gonzalez will have a lot to do when he assumes the position of the county’s top cop in January. He’ll have to rein in overtime pay, manage the Harris County jail … Continue reading →

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HD105 race remains unresolved

Posted on November 12, 2016 by Charles Kuffner

I hadn’t realized this was still an open question. The ballots are still out in the race for Texas House district 105 between Republican Rep. Rodney Anderson and Democratic challenger Terry Meza. The race for the west Dallas County seat … Continue reading →

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Checking in with Kim Ogg

Posted on November 11, 2016 by Charles Kuffner

That’s District Attorney-elect Kim Ogg now. Kim Ogg, still hoarse from shouting over the jubilant victory party crowd after winning her race for Harris County District Attorney, said Wednesday that her first order of business would be to evaluate and … Continue reading →

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Initial thoughts: Statewide

Posted on November 10, 2016 by Charles Kuffner

See part 1 on Harris County here. The current statewide tally is Trump 52.39%, Clinton 43.34%. She received 3,848,617 votes to his 4,651,955. That’s an improvement of some 540K votes over Obama in 2012, which I certainly would have deemed … Continue reading →

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Initial thoughts: Harris County

Posted on November 10, 2016 by Charles Kuffner

I’m still not quite ready to resume regular blogging. I’ve got a few things drafted from before the election, several of which are non-political, that I’ll begin to put in the queue, and a couple of ones that were political … Continue reading →

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Dems sweep Harris County

Posted on November 9, 2016 by Charles Kuffner

Hillary Clinton had a 100K lead in early voting in Harris County, and increased her lead as the night went on. The only countywide Republican who was leading early on was Mike Sullivan, but later in the evening, at the … Continue reading →

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Races I’ll be watching today, non-Legislative edition

Posted on November 8, 2016 by Charles Kuffner

This is my companion to yesterday’s piece. 1. SBOE district 5 I’ve discussed the SBOE races before. This particular race, between incumbent Ken Mercer and repeat challenger Rebecca Bell-Metereau, is the one that has the closest spread based on past … Continue reading →

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The new voters

Posted on November 8, 2016 by Charles Kuffner

One more data point before we get the actual data. A late surge of new voters helped Harris County achieve record early turnout and suggests that local registration drives paid off – although to which party’s benefit remains anyone’s guess … Continue reading →

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Today is Election Day

Posted on November 8, 2016 by Charles Kuffner

From the inbox: Harris County Clerk Stan Stanart urges voters to prepare before heading to vote on Tuesday, November 8, 2016. “Harris County Voters can find their Election Day polling location and review the list of acceptable forms of identification … Continue reading →

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Races I’ll be watching on Tuesday, Legislative edition

Posted on November 7, 2016 by Charles Kuffner

Here are the legislative races I’ll be looking at to see what kind of a day it has been for Texas Democrats. After the 2012 general election, the Dems had 55 seats in the Lege. Thee Democrats lost in 2014, … Continue reading →

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Early voting, Day Twelve: Nearly a million

Posted on November 6, 2016 by Charles Kuffner

Here’s your final daily EV report and your updated tracker spreadsheet. The final tally from Friday was 105,005 in person votes and 2,882 more mail ballots returned. That brings us to 882,580 people showing up at an early vote location, … Continue reading →

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Asian voters are much more Democratic than they were before

Posted on November 6, 2016 by Charles Kuffner

Just another trend to keep in mind. Much like Cubans in Miami, the nation’s nearly 2 million Vietnamese-Americans, including about 110,000 in the Houston metro area, have long been regarded as a shoe-in for the GOP. Stridently anti-communist, they were … Continue reading →

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Muslim voting

Posted on November 5, 2016 by Charles Kuffner

So it turns out that prolonged demonization of a population is a good way to get said population to turn out and vote against the party that is demonizing them. A record 86 percent of registered Muslim voters are expected … Continue reading →

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KTVT/Dixie Strategies: Trump 52, Clinton 39

Posted on November 4, 2016 by Charles Kuffner

There’s one in every crowd. Real Estate Mogul and Republican Presidential nominee Donald J Trump has surged to a twelve point lead in Texas over Former Secretary of State and Democrat nominee, Hillary R. Clinton in the latest KTVT CBS … Continue reading →

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Early voting, Day Eleven: Last chance

Posted on November 4, 2016 by Charles Kuffner

From the inbox: Harris County Clerk Stan Stanart announced within minutes after the polls opened this morning, that Harris County crossed the 700,982 voter benchmark setting a new record for early voters by personal appearance. With essentially two full days … Continue reading →

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Early voting, Day Ten: Who are these people?

Posted on November 3, 2016 by Charles Kuffner

Are we seeing new voters in the early voting so far, or is it all the same old same old? More than a quarter of Harris County’s 2.2 million registered voters cast a ballot in-person or by mail last week, … Continue reading →

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Chron overview of Heights dry referendum

Posted on November 2, 2016 by Charles Kuffner

For an issue that directly affects a few thousand people, this sure had gotten a lot of attention. [Bill] Baldwin is part of the “Keep the Heights Dry” movement, a group of individuals urging residents who live in the dry … Continue reading →

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Chron overview of HD135

Posted on November 2, 2016 by Charles Kuffner

One more look at a local legislative race. Novice political candidate Jesse A. Ybañez believes his focus on the people of the increasingly diverse Texas House District 135 makes him a better choice than longtime state Rep. Gary Elkins. Ybañez, … Continue reading →

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Early voting, Day Nine: A brief comparison

Posted on November 2, 2016 by Charles Kuffner

Here’s a comparison of where the voters who cast their ballots through the first eight days of early voting came from in 2012 and in 2016: Dist 12 Day 8 12 Total Day 8% 16 Day 8 % of 2012 … Continue reading →

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How turnout happens

Posted on November 1, 2016 by Charles Kuffner

If there are a lot of new voters turning out in Harris County this year, the Texas Organizing Project will be the reason why for a lot of them. The untapped power of the Latino electorate is one of the … Continue reading →

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