Tag Archives: voter suppression

Harris County asks for federal vote monitors

Posted on October 22, 2022 by Charles Kuffner

I agree with this. Houston and Harris County officials are asking the U.S. Department of Justice’s civil rights division to send monitors to assist in the upcoming November election in response to a letter the county received from the Texas … Continue reading →

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I think you know the root cause of the problem, John

Posted on October 11, 2022 by Charles Kuffner

I was fascinated by this Texas Monthly feature on Secretary of State John Scott, who is being pushed to reckon with the insane and dangerous levels of election denial and anti-democratic activism. I’m pretty sure he gets it, he just … Continue reading →

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Our big mail ballot test is now underway

Posted on October 7, 2022 by Charles Kuffner

Sure hope we do better this time. Harris County officials on Monday urged residents to follow the correct mail voting guidance as the end-of-the-month deadline to apply for mail-in ballots for the 2022 midterm elections nears. This year’s primary elections … Continue reading →

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The professional vote-deniers are out there

Posted on October 5, 2022 by Charles Kuffner

They’re probing the systems for weaknesses, a line that reminds me of the velociraptors in the original Jurassic Park. Except that the ‘raptors were sleek and efficient predators, while these guys are basically Pennywise with canned scripts and a huge … Continue reading →

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At least one local voter purge effort has been thwarted

Posted on October 4, 2022 by Charles Kuffner

For now, at least. Like flies to garbage, though, you know they’ll be back for more. The Harris County Elections Administrator’s Office received a flood of affidavits this summer challenging the eligibility of thousands of registered voters throughout the county, … Continue reading →

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I wish I knew how to turn the heat down

Posted on September 24, 2022 by Charles Kuffner

But I do know that I’m not the responsible party for this crap. About a dozen activists demanding responses to conspiracy theories about election integrity this week disrupted what is typically an uneventful public testing of voting machines ahead of … Continue reading →

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More on the Gillespie County elections office resignations

Posted on August 31, 2022 by Charles Kuffner

From Votebeat, how this mess got started. Last November’s sleepy constitutional amendment election nearly came to blows in Gillespie County, a central Texas county known for its vineyards. A volunteer poll watcher, whose aggressive behavior had rankled election workers all … Continue reading →

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Paxton finds a new way to be two-faced

Posted on August 27, 2022 by Charles Kuffner

I mean, what were we supposed to believe? Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton stunned election administrators across the state last week when he released an opinion that, in theory, would allow anyone to access ballots almost immediately after they were … Continue reading →

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Paxton issues deranged opinion on access to ballots

Posted on August 26, 2022 by Charles Kuffner

This is utterly chaotic. And completely out of the blue. A legal opinion released by Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton last week will almost certainly throw county elections offices into chaos after November, experts say, exposing election clerks to possible … Continue reading →

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All of Gillespie County’s elections staff resigns

Posted on August 17, 2022 by Charles Kuffner

Who could blame them? Citing threats and even stalking, all three employees at the Gillespie County elections office have resigned from their positions, leaving the office empty with less than three months before the primary election in November. The Fredericksburg … Continue reading →

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Election officials and workers need our help

Posted on August 14, 2022 by Charles Kuffner

We’ve identified the problem. That’s good. Now let’s do something to fix it. Misinformation about elections has led to violent threats against election workers in Texas and other states — including one who was told “we should end your bloodline” … Continue reading →

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Here’s hoping we’ll have fewer mail ballot rejections in November

Posted on August 10, 2022 by Charles Kuffner

Counties are taking the problem seriously, which is a good start. The statewide rejection rate [for mail ballots] was more than 12 percent in the primary — six times what it was in the last midterm year in 2018. By … Continue reading →

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Most of the lawsuit against the voter suppression law survives a motion to dismiss

Posted on August 6, 2022 by Charles Kuffner

Some good news. In a limited order this week, a federal judge threw out some civil rights and discrimination claims brought as part of a complex and ongoing legal dispute over strict new voting rules in Texas. The lawsuit filed last year alleges that the … Continue reading →

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Law against some new voter registration restrictions is struck down

Posted on August 4, 2022 by Charles Kuffner

Good, though one must always remember the threat of the Fifth Circuit. A federal judge on Tuesday night blocked a Texas law passed in 2021 that put new restrictions on people trying to register to vote in the state. The … Continue reading →

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Grifters always stick together

Posted on July 24, 2022 by Charles Kuffner

Two shitty tastes that taste even shittier together. Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton is pretty familiar with Catherine Engelbrecht. He’s been a guest on her podcast, chatting about their shared passion: rooting out voter fraud. They both have gone to … Continue reading →

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A piece of the voter suppression law is blocked

Posted on July 22, 2022 by Charles Kuffner

Buckle up, this will take a bit of explanation. Parts of a 2021 Texas voting law that cracked down on assistance for voters with limited English skills and voters with disabilities can no longer be enforced. A federal judge in … Continue reading →

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The continued Republican threat to voting

Posted on July 5, 2022 by Charles Kuffner

They cannot be satisfied. Not satisfied with the new voting restrictions put in place less than a year ago, the Texas Republican Party is plowing ahead with yet new measures that would reduce the number of early voting days and … Continue reading →

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Look for the grifters

Posted on June 19, 2022 by Charles Kuffner

In any rightwing political movement, there will always be grifters. It’s absolutely an ants-to-a-picnic situation. Over the last two presidential election cycles, True the Vote has raised millions in donations with claims that it discovered tide-turning voter fraud. It’s promised … Continue reading →

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There was definitely an improvement in mail ballot acceptance for the primary runoffs

Posted on June 14, 2022 by Charles Kuffner

The last time I looked, I was largely unable to find any news stories about mail ballots and their rejection rates for the May primary runoff elections, with the exception of one story about Bexar County and how they were … Continue reading →

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SCOTx answers the Fifth Circuit’s questions

Posted on June 12, 2022 by Charles Kuffner

Some late-breaking SB1 lawsuit news. The Texas Supreme Court issued a ruling Friday on the term “solicit” as it pertains to the state’s new election code. […] Of three main issues, one raised several questions pertaining to the definition of … Continue reading →

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A better mail ballot

Posted on May 29, 2022 by Charles Kuffner

I’m glad someone’s working on this. After thousands of mail-in ballots were rejected in Texas’ statewide primaries in March, election officials and voting rights groups are stepping up efforts to make sure voters don’t run into the same problems with … Continue reading →

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The national trend is for less voting by mail

Posted on May 28, 2022 by Charles Kuffner

Of interest. The great vote-by-mail wave appears to be receding just as quickly as it arrived. After tens of millions of people in the United States opted for mail ballots during the pandemic election of 2020, voters in early primary … Continue reading →

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Hey look! Some info about mail ballots in the May election!

Posted on May 23, 2022 by Charles Kuffner

It’s not much, but I’ll take what I can get. For the second time in less than two weeks, Texans are heading back to the polls to decide on a host of statewide and local elections. Voters are deciding who … Continue reading →

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Tomorrow is Primary Runoff Day

Posted on May 23, 2022 by Charles Kuffner

You know the drill, this is your last chance to vote in the primary runoffs. We will finally have the 2022 lineup set for November and can concentrate all of our attention and attacks on the other guys. The map … Continue reading →

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Primary checkup

Posted on May 16, 2022 by Charles Kuffner

Let me start this post off by once again noting that I cannot find any reporting, like at all, about how many mail ballots were rejected for the May elections. Just nothing. It’s as if interest in the subject by … Continue reading →

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SCOTx ponders the questions the Fifth Circuit asked it about SB1

Posted on May 15, 2022 by Charles Kuffner

Seems like there’s not that much in dispute, but there’s always something. Texas Supreme Court justices questioned during oral argument if they should answer certified questions from a federal appeals court about challenges to an election law that created penalties … Continue reading →

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Crystal Mason’s conviction to be reconsidered

Posted on May 12, 2022 by Charles Kuffner

Good news. The Texas Court of Criminal Appeals has told a lower appeals court to take another look at the controversial illegal voting conviction of Crystal Mason, who was given a five-year prison sentence for casting a provisional ballot in … Continue reading →

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Chron editorial board wins another Pulitzer

Posted on May 11, 2022 by Charles Kuffner

Congratulations! The Houston Chronicle Editorial Board on Monday won a 2022 Pulitzer Prize in editorial writing for a series on voter suppression in Texas. The prize, which is the nation’s most prestigious for journalists, was awarded to writers Lisa Falkenberg, … Continue reading →

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May 2022 special election Day Four EV report: Checking in on the mail ballots

Posted on April 29, 2022 by Charles Kuffner

In my first look at early voting for the May special election, I noted the fairly large number of mail ballots that had been cast so far in Harris County and wondered if we would hear about mail ballot rejections … Continue reading →

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May 2022 special election Day One EV report: There were how many mail ballots?

Posted on April 27, 2022 by Charles Kuffner

Hey, it’s early voting time for the May 2022 special election. You know what that means, so here’s your Day One EV report for it. And here’s a comparison for Day One with the two most recent countywide elections: Election … 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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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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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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