Tag Archives: Chris Hollins

Our nanny state and vote by mail applications

Posted on November 23, 2020 by Charles Kuffner

Sen. Paul Bettencourt purses his lips and wags his finger and is very disappointed in your county government. Republican state lawmakers have filed bills to codify the Texas Supreme Court decision that blocked Harris County from sending mail ballot applications … Continue reading →

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Federal judge denies Hotze petition

Posted on November 3, 2020 by Charles Kuffner

Hopefully, this will be the end of this particular nonsense. A federal judge Monday rejected a request by a conservative activist and three Republican candidates to toss out nearly 127,000 votes cast at drive-thru polling sites in Texas’ most populous, … Continue reading →

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Today is Election Day

Posted on November 3, 2020 by Charles Kuffner

It almost feels unreal, doesn’t it? Like some people have been saying while on line at voting locations, we’ve been waiting four whole years for this. Now it’s here, Texas is considered a swing state, the Lege is in play, … Continue reading →

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A few thoughts about Election 2020 before Tuesday

Posted on November 2, 2020 by Charles Kuffner

Just a brain dump, to get this all out there before we find out what happened. Let’s start with this: After the conclusion of three weeks of early voting, 9.7 million Texans have cast ballots, crushing previous early voting totals … Continue reading →

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SCOTX rejects Hotze petition to throw out drive through votes

Posted on November 2, 2020 by Charles Kuffner

One piece of good news. A legal cloud hanging over nearly 127,000 votes already cast in Harris County was at least temporarily lifted Sunday when the Texas Supreme Court rejected a request by several conservative Republican activists and candidates to … Continue reading →

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Hotze and Woodfill take their fight against drive-thru voting to federal court

Posted on November 1, 2020 by Charles Kuffner

Just another quiet Saturday… . Judge Hanen has already scheduled an emergency hearing for Monday morning—without even giving Harris County a chance to file a response brief. This, too, is extremely concerning. It looks like he may be rushing to … Continue reading →

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November 2020 Early Voting Day Eighteen: Records were broken

Posted on October 31, 2020 by Charles Kuffner

I know, I skipped Day Seventeen, but since the daily EV totals came in at a more manageable hour last night (since early voting once again ceased at 7 PM), I was able to get the latest totals in. So … Continue reading →

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Meet your new Election Administrator

Posted on October 31, 2020 by Charles Kuffner

Solid choice. The Harris County Elections Commission on Friday appointed Isabel Longoria as the county’s first election administrator, who will assume the voter registration and election management duties that currently fall to the county clerk and tax assessor-collector. Longoria, a … Continue reading →

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One last, desperate attempt to kill drive-though voting

Posted on October 30, 2020 by Charles Kuffner

These guys really suck. Not much more can be said. A new challenge to Harris County’s drive-thru voting sites, filed by two GOP candidates and a Republican member of the Texas House, asks the state Supreme Court to void ballots … Continue reading →

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November 2020 Early Voting Day Sixteen: All through the night

Posted on October 30, 2020 by Charles Kuffner

This post is scheduled to publish before 5 AM today. When that happens, voting will still be happening in Harris County. In Harris County this year, residents can vote where the Rockets or Texans play, from the comfort or their … Continue reading →

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November 2020 Early Voting Day Fifteen: Now with evening hours

Posted on October 29, 2020 by Charles Kuffner

In case you haven’t heard, Texas is in play. It’s six days from a presidential election, and the anchor of the Republican Electoral College coalition—Texas—is a toss-up. That is not just us being goofballs and throwing around dramatic words. “Toss-up” … Continue reading →

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November 2020 Early Voting Day Fourteen: Where will we end up?

Posted on October 27, 2020 by Charles Kuffner

Because we like starting with tweets: . Welp. https://projects.fivethirtyeight.com/polls/president-general/texas/ — Nate Silver (@NateSilver538) 5:58 PM – 25 October 2020 That was from Sunday, after the UT-Tyler poll was factored in. As you may know, there have been two polls released … Continue reading →

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November 2020 Early Voting Day Thirteen: In the home stretch

Posted on October 26, 2020 by Charles Kuffner

Twitter time: . According to the Texas Secretary of State, 7,193,582 Texans had voted as of Saturday, a turnout of 42.43% of registered voters. Texas turnout for *all* of 2016 (including Election Day) was 8,969,226, so the state is already … Continue reading →

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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 →

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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 →

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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 →

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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 →

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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 →

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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 →

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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 →

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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 →

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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 →

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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 →

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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 →

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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 →

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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 →

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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 →

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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 →

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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 →

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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 →

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Fifth Circuit upholds Abbott’s mail ballot dropoff limits

Posted on October 14, 2020 by Charles Kuffner

Because of course they did. Why would you have expected anything else? In a ruling issued late Monday night, a federal appeals court upheld Gov. Greg Abbott’s order that limited counties to one mail-in ballot drop-off location. A three-judge panel … Continue reading →

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State GOP files suit to stop curbside voting in Harris County

Posted on October 14, 2020 by Charles Kuffner

Honesty, it feels like they’re just trolling now. Hours before early voting began, the Texas Republican Party filed a new lawsuit Monday night challenging Harris County’s efforts to provide more voting options during the coronavirus pandemic, this time asking a … Continue reading →

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November 2020 Early Voting Day One: People sure were ready to vote

Posted on October 14, 2020 by Charles Kuffner

You’re going to hear the words “record-breaking” a lot. More than 125,000 Harris County residents went to the polls Tuesday to cast ballots on the first day of early voting, smashing the county’s previous records. As of about 7:30 p.m., … Continue reading →

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2020 early voting starts today

Posted on October 13, 2020 by Charles Kuffner

From the inbox: The Early Voting period for the November 2020 General Election begins tomorrow, Tuesday, October 13th, and continues through Friday, October 30th. This is the longest Early Voting period in Texas history, and voters who are not eligible … Continue reading →

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