Tag Archives: Harris County

Hotze gets bail

Posted on April 22, 2022 by Charles Kuffner

I don’t know about you, but I’d feel much safer if this guy had been locked up. Far-right activist Steven Hotze on Thursday made his first court appearance since being indicted on criminal charges after funding a private investigation into … Continue reading →

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Hotze indicted for his bogus “voter fraud investigation”

Posted on April 21, 2022 by Charles Kuffner

Lock him up. Steven Hotze, the far-right agitator who funded a private investigation into voter fraud that ended with a private investigator pointing a gun at an innocent air conditioning repairman, has been indicted for his role in the episode. … Continue reading →

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We will have a new elections administrator on July 1

Posted on April 21, 2022 by Charles Kuffner

Let’s get the best we can. The Harris County Election Board on Tuesday voted to accept Elections Administrator Isabel Longoria’s resignation and hire a national search firm to find a replacement, two weeks after the five-member panel could only agree … Continue reading →

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How Dallas is handling supply and demand of voting centers

Posted on April 19, 2022 by Charles Kuffner

Given the current kerfuffle over voting locations for the primary runoffs in Harris County, I thought this story from Dallas was of interest. More than three dozen Dallas County voting sites that were used last month won’t open for elections … Continue reading →

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Where are we voting in the primary runoffs?

Posted on April 18, 2022 by Charles Kuffner

Still TBD. Harris County Democrats on Thursday accused their Republican counterparts of excluding predominantly Black and Latino areas from a “disturbingly racist” map of proposed voting locations for the May 24 primary runoff, days after alleging the county GOP was … Continue reading →

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Grand jury indicts three Hidalgo aides

Posted on April 12, 2022 by Charles Kuffner

Not great. Three Harris County staffers at the center of a mounting investigation into a since-canceled vaccine outreach contract have been indicted with misuse of official information and tampering, according to district clerk records. Aaron Dunn, Wallis Nader and Alex … Continue reading →

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When is an emergency no longer an emergency?

Posted on April 8, 2022 by Charles Kuffner

I don’t know, but not yet. Harris County Judge Lina Hidalgo still has emergency powers to handle COVID, after a proposal to end her authority failed at commissioners’ court this week. The proposal, by Precinct Four Commissioner Jack Cagle, failed … Continue reading →

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We have a final count of rejected mail ballots

Posted on April 7, 2022 by Charles Kuffner

About one in eight got canned. That’s a lot. The votes of more than 24,000 Texans who tried to cast ballots by mail were thrown out in the March primary — a dramatic increase in rejected ballots in the first … Continue reading →

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State wants feds to un-pause I-45

Posted on April 5, 2022 by Charles Kuffner

We all want things. State highway officials held fast to their plans for rebuilding Interstate 45 in Houston on Thursday, offering a litany of benefits the project will bring and pressing federal officials to lift a 12-month-and-counting pause on development. … Continue reading →

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Here comes BA.2 in Houston

Posted on April 2, 2022 by Charles Kuffner

But don’t panic, it’s just a change in the virus composition, not an increase in viral load. Houston is seeing an uptick in the number of BA.2 cases, with genome sequencing and wastewater testing picking up higher levels this week compared to … Continue reading →

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Judicial Q&A: Beverly Armstrong

Posted on March 28, 2022 by Charles Kuffner

(Note: As I have done in past elections, I am running a series of Q&As for judicial candidates in contested Democratic primaries. This was intended to help introduce the candidates and their experiences to those who plan to vote in … Continue reading →

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Fifth Circuit asks SCOTx for help on some SB1 issues

Posted on March 25, 2022 by Charles Kuffner

The Twitter summary: . Here are the questions the 5th Circuit asked the Texas Supremes to answer: https://ca5.uscourts.gov/opinions/unpub/22/22-50110.0.pdf — Chuck Lindell (@chucklindell) 2:45 PM – 23 March 2022 To recap the history here, back in September a group of plaintiffs … Continue reading →

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Bexar County looks for ways to reduce future mail ballot rejections

Posted on March 24, 2022 by Charles Kuffner

Good luck. I hope if they learn anything useful they share it with the rest of us. Bexar County Commissioners on Tuesday directed local officials to come up with a plan to reduce the number of rejected mail-in ballots in … Continue reading →

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HUD approves updated GLO proposal for Harris County

Posted on March 21, 2022 by Charles Kuffner

Interesting, but there are still a lot of moving pieces out there. The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development on Friday said it would accept the Texas General Land Office’s proposal to give Harris County $750 million in federal … Continue reading →

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Still more on the mail ballot rejections

Posted on March 19, 2022 by Charles Kuffner

The Associated Press moves the ball forward now that the votes have been canvassed. Texas threw out mail votes at an abnormally high rate during the nation’s first primary of 2022, rejecting nearly 23,000 ballots outright under tougher voting rules … Continue reading →

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Appeals court upholds school district mask mandates

Posted on March 19, 2022 by Charles Kuffner

Maybe not the most timely ruling ever, but still nice. An appellate court on Thursday sided with Texas school districts in their dispute with state officials over mask mandates, which numerous school systems have already lifted as pandemic conditions have eased. The … Continue reading →

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How low can COVID go?

Posted on March 16, 2022 by Charles Kuffner

I feel like this is more a function of time and evolution than anything else, but we’ll see. New coronavirus cases across the greater Houston area dropped to their lowest level in four months, new data showed Monday, just days … Continue reading →

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Precinct analysis: Beto’s range in the 2022 primaries

Posted on March 15, 2022 by Charles Kuffner

When you get 91.34% of the vote in an election, as Beto did in the Democratic primary for Governor, there’s usually not a whole lot of interesting data beneath the surface. But you never know until you look, so I … Continue reading →

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Meet the new judge of County Civil Court at Law #4

Posted on March 14, 2022 by Charles Kuffner

So far, this is the only public announcement I have seen: . Immensely proud of Miryea Ayala, who tonight was appointed as the new judge for the Harris County Civil Court at Law No. 4! She’s been a great colleague … Continue reading →

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More data about mail ballot rejections

Posted on March 13, 2022 by Charles Kuffner

Keep it coming. Thousands of Texans who attempted to vote by mail in the March primary were disenfranchised in the state’s first election conducted under a new Republican voting law. The state’s largest counties saw a significant spike in the … Continue reading →

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More on Tina Linn and Harold Clouse

Posted on March 13, 2022 by Charles Kuffner

Very moving stuff. Donna Casasanta picked through the brush in an overgrown patch of woods in northeast Harris County, looking. The 80-year-old mother had spent 40 years wondering. She had traveled 980 miles, driven with her grown children for three … Continue reading →

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The rejected mail ballots of Bexar County

Posted on March 12, 2022 by Charles Kuffner

I have four things to say about this. Bexar County rejected mail-in ballots at roughly ten times the rate it did before the passage of the state’s new voting law last year. Before Senate Bill 1 took effect, with its … Continue reading →

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And we’re back to yellow again

Posted on March 12, 2022 by Charles Kuffner

Let’s hope it lasts. Harris County Judge Lina Hidalgo on Thursday lowered the county’s COVID threat level to yellow, signaling a controlled level of cases following the decline of the omicron wave. The yellow level means COVID poses a “moderate … Continue reading →

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It’s officially Garza and Jaworski in the AG runoff

Posted on March 11, 2022 by Charles Kuffner

Glad that’s settled. Civil rights lawyer Lee Merritt suspended his campaign for the Democratic nomination for Texas attorney general on Thursday, clearing the way for top vote-getter Rochelle Garza to face Joe Jaworski in a May runoff election. More than … Continue reading →

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Longoria to resign as Election Administrator

Posted on March 9, 2022 by Charles Kuffner

Ultimately for the best. Harris County Elections Administrator Isabel Longoria submitted her resignation Tuesday, about an hour and half after Judge Lina Hidalgo announced she intended to replace her following last week’s bungled primary contests. Longoria said her resignation would … Continue reading →

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Harris County GOP sues Isabel Longoria

Posted on March 8, 2022 by Charles Kuffner

It’s a lawsuit kind of day. The Harris County Republican Party filed a lawsuit Monday against the county’s elections administrator, Isabel Longoria, for what they call the “worst elections fiasco in Texas history.” The lawsuit was filed after Longoria’s office … Continue reading →

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There were mail ballots not included in the count on Election Day

Posted on March 7, 2022 by Charles Kuffner

Oof, this is bad. Harris County Election Administrator Isabel Longoria’s office on Saturday announced that they have identified approximately 10,000 mail-in ballots that were not added to the original count on Election Night. The county said that approximately 6,000 of … Continue reading →

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CCA will take up the question of where Paxton’s securities trial should be

Posted on March 7, 2022 by Charles Kuffner

Time for an OG Paxton scandal update. The state’s top appeals court on Wednesday agreed to take up the question of where Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton should be tried for alleged securities fraud, a small victory for prosecutors pursuing … Continue reading →

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Yeah, the mail ballot thing was a huge mess

Posted on March 4, 2022 by Charles Kuffner

We still don’t know how huge. Election day has come and gone, but it remains unclear how many Texans were unable to vote after trying to cast ballots by mail under new Republican laws restricting that voting option. In the … Continue reading →

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Maybe suing to stop the vote count isn’t the best way to get the vote counted

Posted on March 4, 2022 by Charles Kuffner

Just a thought. The Harris County Elections Division released the final, unofficial primary elections results early Thursday, following a GOP petition to impound the records which stopped vote counts hours earlier. Citing malfunctions and a lack of testing of election … Continue reading →

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The Rodeo is back

Posted on March 4, 2022 by Charles Kuffner

Gonna be interesting to see how different it is, if it’s different at all. And this year, after a one-year hiatus, the rodeo again will be focused on preventing the spread of COVID-19, the virus that abruptly brought the rodeo … Continue reading →

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Initial post-election wrapup

Posted on March 3, 2022 by Charles Kuffner

Just a few updates and observations to add onto what I posted yesterday morning. Any deeper thoughts, if I have them, will come later. – Cheri Thomas and William Demond won their races for the 14th Court of Appeals. I … Continue reading →

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A roundup of runoffs

Posted on March 3, 2022 by Charles Kuffner

I was going to just do a basic recap of all the primary races that will require runoffs, and then this happened, and I had to do some redesign. U.S. Rep. Van Taylor, R-Plano, has decided to end his reelection … Continue reading →

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AstroWorld lawsuits get underway

Posted on March 3, 2022 by Charles Kuffner

This is going to be fascinating, heartbreaking, infuriating, and a lot more. Lawyers packed a Harris County civil courtroom Tuesday morning as the judge overseeing litigation stemming from the deadly Astroworld Festival concert outlined the first steps to organize the hundreds of … Continue reading →

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