Category Archives: Election 2020

Bill Kelly: Voting Matters

Posted on October 25, 2020 by Charles Kuffner

(Note: The following is a guest post that was submitted to me. I occasionally solicit guest posts, and also occasionally accept them from people I trust.) The national headlines have highlighted the increased turnout among Harris County voters, and rightfully … Continue reading →

Posted in Election 2020, Local politics | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 1 Comment

November 2020 Early Voting Day Twelve: Second Saturday

Posted on October 25, 2020 by Charles Kuffner

Where we are. Harris County surpassed 1 million ballots cast Friday, setting an early voting record with seven days remaining, in spite of the lingering COVID-19 pandemic and a flurry of lawsuits over the management of the election. The county … Continue reading →

Posted in Election 2020 | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 4 Comments

Abbott’s order limiting mail ballot dropoff sites blocked again

Posted on October 24, 2020 by Charles Kuffner

But that’s not the end of the story, so hang on. A Texas appellate court on Friday stepped in to block Gov. Greg Abbott’s order limiting counties to just one mail-ballot dropoff site, but Harris County officials said they will … Continue reading →

Posted in Election 2020, Legal matters | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 14 Comments

Abbott sloshes some money around the State House races

Posted on October 24, 2020 by Charles Kuffner

Not really a surprise. Gov. Greg Abbott’s campaign is ratcheting up its down-ballot efforts in the final weeks before the November election, working to defend the Republican majority in the state House and to remind voters about the importance of … Continue reading →

Posted in Election 2020 | Tagged , , , , , | Comments Off on Abbott sloshes some money around the State House races

Overview of Harris County Sheriff’s race

Posted on October 24, 2020 by Charles Kuffner

The explanation for why Sheriff Ed Gonzalez is a big favorite to be re-elected is quite simple, really. County veterans wondered if former Houston police officer-turned politician Ed Gonzalez would be up to the job of sheriff in 2016 after … Continue reading →

Posted in Election 2020 | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , | 1 Comment

November 2020 Early Voting Day Eleven: We reach one million

Posted on October 24, 2020 by Charles Kuffner

Let’s take a brief detour to Fort bend County. Fort Bend County voters continue to smash early-voting records — with a greater share of voters turning out so far than in populous Harris and Dallas counties, according to a news … Continue reading →

Posted in Election 2020 | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , | Comments Off on November 2020 Early Voting Day Eleven: We reach one million

Morning Consult: Biden 48, Trump 47

Posted on October 23, 2020 by Charles Kuffner

The overview is here and there are some words that I’ll include shortly, but for the headline we’ll need this picture: I know it says “Tied” despite the “Biden 48, Trump 47” listing. My guess is that the exact numbers … Continue reading →

Posted in Election 2020, The making of the President | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , | 2 Comments

SCOTX rejects challenges to drive-through voting

Posted on October 23, 2020 by Charles Kuffner

Halle-fricking-lujah. Voters in the state’s most populous county can continue casting their ballots for the fall election at 10 drive-thru polling places after the Texas Supreme Court Thursday rejected a last-minute challenge by the Texas and Harris County Republican parties, … Continue reading →

Posted in Election 2020, Legal matters | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 7 Comments

November 2020 Early Voting Day Ten: Closing in on 2016

Posted on October 23, 2020 by Charles Kuffner

A couple of tweets to get us started: . 1.3 million (25%) ofTX early voters so far did not vote in 2016. #txlege — Keir Murray (@houtopia) 2:40 PM – 21 October 2020 I talked about the likely percentage of … Continue reading →

Posted in Election 2020 | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , | Comments Off on November 2020 Early Voting Day Ten: Closing in on 2016

Quinnipiac: Biden 47, Trump 47

Posted on October 22, 2020 by Charles Kuffner

Very interesting. In the home stretch of the 2020 presidential election campaign, former Vice President Joe Biden is in a tied race with President Donald Trump in the reliably red state of Texas, and he holds a single digit lead … Continue reading →

Posted in Election 2020, The making of the President | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , | 3 Comments

Hollins calls on Secretary of State to defend drive through voting

Posted on October 22, 2020 by Charles Kuffner

Good. Harris County Clerk Chris Hollins is seeking assurance from Texas Secretary of State Ruth Hughs that her office is “committed to defending the votes” cast at the county’s drive-thru voting sites, the subject of two lawsuits currently before the … Continue reading →

Posted in Election 2020, Legal matters | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 9 Comments

November 2020 Early Voting Day Nine: Starting to run out of clever subtitles

Posted on October 22, 2020 by Charles Kuffner

And now, for something slightly different, Part One: This was hard for Jacob Monty. As a lifelong Republican, the 52-year old Houston attorney has been in the trenches with former President George W. Bush, never voted for a Democrat for … Continue reading →

Posted in Election 2020 | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 2 Comments

DFP: Biden 47, Trump 46

Posted on October 21, 2020 by Charles Kuffner

From Twitter: . Police cars revolving lightNew Poll – TX Police cars revolving light Biden 47 – Trump 46 Cornyn 44 – Hegar 41 https://filesforprogress.org/memos/2020-senate-project/week-5/toplines/tx.pdf — Data For Progress (@DataProgress) 8:21 PM – 18 October 2020 What’s interesting about this … Continue reading →

Posted in Election 2020, The making of the President | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , | 6 Comments

November 2020 Early Voting Day Eight: Any idea what pattern we’ll follow?

Posted on October 21, 2020 by Charles Kuffner

The Chron provides five takeaways from early voting so far. Democrats appear to be doing well in Harris County, but don’t call it a wave yet. Turnout to date has been strong in precincts carried by Trump and Clinton in … Continue reading →

Posted in Election 2020 | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , | Comments Off on November 2020 Early Voting Day Eight: Any idea what pattern we’ll follow?

Your handwriting should not jeopardize your vote

Posted on October 20, 2020 by Charles Kuffner

Jesus Christ. Texas election officials may continue rejecting mail-in ballots if they decide the signature on the ballot can’t be verified, without notifying voters until after the election that their ballot wasn’t counted, the U.S. Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals … Continue reading →

Posted in Election 2020, Legal matters | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 9 Comments

District B runoff officially scheduled

Posted on October 20, 2020 by Charles Kuffner

Hooray! At long last, voters in the north Houston neighborhoods that make up City Council’s District B will get to select a new representative in December. Visiting state District Judge Grant Dorfman on Monday ordered the long-delayed runoff to be … Continue reading →

Posted in Election 2019, Election 2020 | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , | Comments Off on District B runoff officially scheduled

“I opposed him in private before completely supporting him in public”

Posted on October 20, 2020 by Charles Kuffner

Man, this guy is a weasel. And honestly, that’s insulting to weasels. U.S. Sen. John Cornyn acknowledged Friday that at times he has disagreed with President Trump on issues such as budget deficits and debt, tariffs and trade agreements and … Continue reading →

Posted in Election 2020 | Tagged , , , , , , , | 27 Comments

November 2020 Early Voting Day Seven: It’s Day One all over again, sort of

Posted on October 20, 2020 by Charles Kuffner

Here’s a mid-day headline that needed some revision by the evening. Harris County is on pace to reach half of of 2016’s total voter turnout by Monday evening, the county clerk reported. By 11 a.m. Monday, the seventh day of … Continue reading →

Posted in Election 2020 | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 1 Comment

October 2020 campaign finance reports: Congress

Posted on October 19, 2020 by Charles Kuffner

This is it, the last quarterly finance report roundup for the cycle. It’s been quite the time, hasn’t it? Let’s do this and see where we are as voting continues. The January 2019 roundup is here, which closed out the … Continue reading →

Posted in Election 2020 | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | Comments Off on October 2020 campaign finance reports: Congress

PPP: Cornyn 49, Hegar 46

Posted on October 19, 2020 by Charles Kuffner

Of interest. Last week PPP took a look at the Presidential race in Texas, and this week we checked in on the Senate race. MJ Hegar trails John Cornyn just 49-46, making up for the Republican lean of the state … Continue reading →

Posted in Election 2020 | Tagged , , , , , , , , , | 1 Comment

Texas, the “We don’t want you to vote” state

Posted on October 19, 2020 by Charles Kuffner

And by “We” I mean “Republicans”. In five states controlled by Republican governors and legislatures, new policies allow all voters to use COVID-19 as an excuse to mail in their ballots. In Iowa, the Republican secretary of state sent absentee ballot applications for … Continue reading →

Posted in Election 2020 | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , | Comments Off on Texas, the “We don’t want you to vote” state

November 2020 Early Voting Day Six: And now we start the “normal” early voting period

Posted on October 19, 2020 by Charles Kuffner

I’m just going to jump right into the data here. The Day Six daily EV totals are here. You can find the daily totals for 2008 and 2012 (and 2016 as well, but I’ve got a separate link for it) … Continue reading →

Posted in Election 2020 | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , | Comments Off on November 2020 Early Voting Day Six: And now we start the “normal” early voting period

November 2020 Early Voting Day Five: How not to look at the early voting totals

Posted on October 18, 2020 by Charles Kuffner

From Twitter on Friday: . Biden needs a rout in Harris County (#Houston) to have any chance of winning TX. We’ve had 3 days of record-shattering turnout and by tonight may have 500k votes. But so far, Biden probably isn’t … Continue reading →

Posted in Election 2020 | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 2 Comments

How hard it is to vote is a policy choice

Posted on October 18, 2020 by Charles Kuffner

Harris County tried to make it easier. The state GOP, various other Republican contingents, Greg Abbott, Ken Paxton, and others fought that choice every step of the way. Much of the Democrats’ dream of turning Texas blue is pinned on … Continue reading →

Posted in Election 2020 | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | Comments Off on How hard it is to vote is a policy choice

All those voter registration efforts did what they set out to do

Posted on October 17, 2020 by Charles Kuffner

News item #1: Texas adds nearly 300,000 more voters in the last two weeks, approaches 17 million voters overall. In just two weeks, Texas added more than 284,000 more voters to its rolls just before the registration deadline and now … Continue reading →

Posted in Election 2020 | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , | 5 Comments

The overlooked Congressional race

Posted on October 17, 2020 by Charles Kuffner

There are ten Congressional races involving Republican-held seats that are seen as competitive. Nine of them have gotten a fair amount of attention. The tenth is CD06, and the Texas Signal steps in to fill the gap. The race in … Continue reading →

Posted in Election 2020 | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 3 Comments

November 2020 Early Voting Day Four: One hundred thousand is the magic number

Posted on October 17, 2020 by Charles Kuffner

Lather, rinse, repeat. The county announced it had passed the 100K mark in a tweet just after 6 p.m. It was the four straight day with more than 100,000 ballots cast by county voters. Those four days now mark the … Continue reading →

Posted in Election 2020 | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , | 3 Comments

30 Day 2020 campaign finance reports: State races, part 4

Posted on October 16, 2020 by Charles Kuffner

Last but not least, here are the 30-day finance reports from the 10 non-Houston-area seats that Dems flipped in 2018, plus four others of interest. Part One of my stroll through the 30-day finance reports, for statewide, SBOE, and State … Continue reading →

Posted in Election 2020 | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 1 Comment

State judge halts Abbott’s mail ballot dropoff limit order

Posted on October 16, 2020 by Charles Kuffner

Remember there was a state lawsuit over the executive order that limited counties to one mail ballot dropoff location? That suit had a hearing this week, and the plaintiffs prevailed. For now, at least. A Travis County state district judge … Continue reading →

Posted in Election 2020, Legal matters | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 1 Comment

And it’s off to SCOTX for the Republicans who want to stop drive-through voting

Posted on October 16, 2020 by Charles Kuffner

It was inevitable. State and local Republicans have taken their challenge of drive-thru voting in Harris County to the Texas Supreme Court. In separate petitions, the Texas and Harris County GOP are asking the state’s highest court to limit drive-thru … Continue reading →

Posted in Election 2020, Legal matters | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 7 Comments

November 2020 Early Voting Day Three: It’s still raining voters out there

Posted on October 16, 2020 by Charles Kuffner

People want to vote. About 1.9 million Texans had cast ballots in-person or by mail as of Wednesday, according to state and county election data, continuing to crush state records for early voting. The 2020 presidential election is expected to … Continue reading →

Posted in Election 2020 | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , | 13 Comments

30 Day 2020 campaign finance reports: State races, part 3

Posted on October 15, 2020 by Charles Kuffner

Moving on to the 30-day campaign finance reports for the hot State Rep races outside the Houston area. As noted, a lot of candidates have been reporting big hauls, as has the HDCC, the fundraising committee for State House Democrats. … Continue reading →

Posted in Election 2020 | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | Comments Off on 30 Day 2020 campaign finance reports: State races, part 3

Petition to stop drive-through voting dismissed

Posted on October 15, 2020 by Charles Kuffner

That was quick. Drive-thru and curbside voting programs in Harris County can continue after a state appeals court Wednesday quickly threw out a last-minute lawsuit filed by the Texas Republican Party challenging the county’s efforts to provide more voting options … Continue reading →

Posted in Election 2020, Legal matters | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 2 Comments

November 2020 Early Voting Day Two: One million votes on Day One

Posted on October 15, 2020 by Charles Kuffner

Pretty impressive so far. More than a million Texans have already cast ballots after just the first day of early voting. And the state isn’t even finished counting the first day’s numbers. Record breaking early voting, combined with unusually high … Continue reading →

Posted in Election 2020 | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , | 1 Comment