Tag Archives: Election 2020

Yep, still no voter fraud found

So says the official 2020 election audit. Despite challenges posed by the COVID-19 pandemic, there was neither widespread voter fraud nor other serious issues in Texas’ 2020 elections, according to an audit of four of Texas’ largest counties released Monday … Continue reading

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

Electoral Count Act included in must-pass budget bill

It’s not nearly enough to shore up voting rights, but it’s still vitally necessary and clearly the best we could do. After months of negotiations, it now appears to be official: The Electoral Count Reform Act has hitched a ride … Continue reading

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Precinct analysis: Beto versus the spread

PREVIOUSLY Beto versus Abbott So last time we saw the numbers for the 2022 Governor’s race. But what numbers need in order to be meaningful is context, and that means other numbers to compare them to. We’re going to do … Continue reading

Posted in Election 2022 | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 1 Comment

True the Vote keeps on contempting

Here’s the latest filing from the plaintiffs in the defamation lawsuit against True the Vote and their lying grifter principles, Catherine Engelbrecht and Gregg Phillips. You may recall that Engelbrecht and Phillips spent a few days in the pokey for … Continue reading

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Precinct analysis: Beto versus Abbott

All right, I have the full landscape data for Harris County and the November 2022 election, and I’ll be doing my usual thing with it. There’s a lot of data and a lot of ways to explore it, some of … Continue reading

Posted in Election 2022 | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 2 Comments

State and county election result relationships: Tarrant County

In years past, Tarrant County was a pretty close bellwether for election results in the state of Texas. From 2004 through 2016, the closeness of their Presidential numbers with the statewide numbers was eerie. But since 2018 the talk has … Continue reading

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And now we have a judicial loser contesting the election

The Republicans did warn us they’d be sore losers. Republican judicial candidate Erin Lunceford filed a petition Wednesday seeking a new election in Harris County’s 189th judicial district court race after losing by 2,743 votes out of more than 1 … Continue reading

Posted in Election 2022 | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 8 Comments

Yes, we’re talking about Texas Senate 2024

Gromer Jeffers points out that Ted Cruz may run for both President and re-election to the Senate in 2024, which he can do under the law that was passed to allow LBJ to run for Vice President in 1960 (and … Continue reading

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Time for the biennial salute to the new Secretary of State

So long, John. Hope the next guy is better than you were. Texas Secretary of State John Scott will step down from his role as the state’s top elections official at the end of the year. “When I took office … Continue reading

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Precinct analysis: How the 2022 Harris County State Rep candidates did versus the 2020 and 2018 results

I still don’t have a full canvass of Harris County, so I’m looking around to see what kind of analyses I can do in the meantime. For this post, I’m comparing how the candidates in the contested State Rep contests … Continue reading

Posted in Election 2022 | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 1 Comment

On comparing counties from 2018 to 2022

I started with this. Voters in counties across Texas chose GOP leaders over Democrats at a higher rate than they did four years ago, a Dallas Morning News analysis shows. The findings, based on data as of noon on Wednesday, … Continue reading

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Christopher Busby: The Case for Texas Democratic Optimism

(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 election came and went with a similar story. Texas Democrats just started to … Continue reading

Posted in Election 2022 | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 4 Comments

State and county election result relationships, part 4: What happened in 2022

Part 1 Part 2 Part 3 Now that the final totals are in, let’s go back and do the same exercise in comparing overall results for statewide candidates to the results they got in Harris County, and then from there … Continue reading

Posted in Election 2022 | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 1 Comment

The case for redrawing Constable/JP precincts

A Twitter thread of interest: Harris County hasn’t redrawn its civil court boundaries since 1973, leading to lopsided caseloads. Here’s 1,000 new maps that would reduce lines at the courthouse, give judges more time in eviction & debt cases, and … Continue reading

Posted in Local politics | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , | 3 Comments

In which Harris County Republicans look for moral victories

Believe me, as a Texas Democrat and a longtime fan of the Rice Owls, I know what it looks like to search for moral victories in the face of defeat. It looks like this. Harris County Republicans on Tuesday posted … Continue reading

Posted in Election 2022 | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 1 Comment

Some opening thoughts on the 2022 election

Done in the traditional bullet-point style. There may or may not be a part 2 to this, depending on the usual factors. – Obviously the overall result was disappointing. It was harder to see a Beto victory this year from … Continue reading

Posted in Election 2022 | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 10 Comments

Fifth Circuit releases the True the Vote duo

Thanks for making the streets less safe. After spending nearly a week in jail, Catherine Engelbrecht and Gregg Phillips — leaders of Texas-based right-wing voting activist group True the Vote — have been released. They’d been held for contempt of court since Halloween, … Continue reading

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Fewer mail ballots rejected in November

Good, but still could be better. Local election officials in Texas are reporting a drop in the percentage of mail ballots that have so far been flagged for rejection during the ongoing midterm elections, as compared with a spike earlier … Continue reading

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A True the Vote twofer

An update on a different lawsuit they’re involved in. A disgruntled supporter of the True the Vote campaign to find voter fraud in the 2020 election preserved a claim on appeal, at least temporarily, against the organization’s law firm. While … Continue reading

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Final November 2022 EV totals: Catching up

First, some slightly outdated numbers from the Chron. Fewer Harris County voters cast ballots during this year’s early voting period than in the 2020 and 2018 elections, according to unofficial voter counts released after polls closed on Friday night. From … Continue reading

Posted in Election 2022 | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , | 2 Comments

We have already entered Speaker’s Race season

And I’m already exhausted. State Rep. Tony Tinderholt, R-Arlington, announced Friday he is running for speaker, challenging fellow Republican Dade Phelan. Tinderholt is one of the furthest-right Republicans in the chamber, and in a statement, he made clear he would … Continue reading

Posted in That's our Lege | Tagged , , , , , , , , | 2 Comments

John Scott keeps wanting to have it both ways

You’re kind of close to getting it, John. You do need to do better, though. Speaking in July to a group of concerned conservative voters in Dallas, Texas Secretary of State John Scott declared that Texas elections were the nation’s … Continue reading

Posted in Election 2022 | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , | 3 Comments

True the Vote leaders officially held in contempt

How long do you think they’ll be willing to sit in jail? Federal marshals escorted two leaders of True the Vote out of a Houston courtroom on Monday morning and into a holding cell. Catherine Engelbrecht and Gregg Phillips have … Continue reading

Posted in Legal matters | Tagged , , , , , , , , | 5 Comments

Contempt of court in the True the Vote lawsuit

Wilder and wilder. After a chaotic day of testimony on Thursday, a federal judge in Texas found Catherine Engelbrecht and Gregg Phillips — known as leaders of the group True the Vote — in contempt of court. They are facing … Continue reading

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

What will Tarrant County do this year?

Hoping for a blue result at the top and at least closer races below it, but we’ll see. Eight years after voting for Gov. Greg Abbott, Angela Martinez found herself waiting in line Tuesday to snap a photo with Beto … Continue reading

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Univision: Abbott 46, Beto 42

Another registered voters poll, with a supersample of Latino respondents. Republican Governor Greg Abbott leads Beto O’Rourke in the Texas governors’ race by more than four points, even though the Democrat has more support among Latinos and Blacks. The increase … Continue reading

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Charges dropped against Hervis Rogers

Good, but this whole thing was an enraging travesty and in no way makes things right. Voter fraud charges against Hervis Rogers, who garnered widespread attention for waiting hours in line to vote at a Houston polling location during the … Continue reading

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UT/Texas Politics Project: Abbott 54, Beto 43

Not great. With in-person early voting set to begin in Texas on October 24, the latest University of Texas/Texas Politics Project poll finds Gov. Greg Abbott leading Democratic challenger Beto O’Rourke in the gubernatorial race, 54%-43%, among Texans likely to … Continue reading

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State and county election result relationships, part 3: Other county races

Part One Part Two Last time we looked at judicial races, which for all of the complaints about not knowing the candidates and just going by partisan labels have produced a consistent range of outcomes over the years. Some people … Continue reading

Posted in Election 2022 | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 6 Comments

SOS inserts itself

It’s the damn fraudit again. The Texas secretary of state’s office on Tuesday warned Harris County officials it still is missing information about the chain of custody for certain election materials in its ongoing audit of the 2020 election. In … Continue reading

Posted in Election 2022 | Tagged , , , , , , , , | 3 Comments

State and county election result relationships, part 2: Judicial races

In Part One of this series, we looked at the relationship between statewide results and Harris County results for statewide candidates. In the last three elections, statewide Democratic candidates have done on average more than nine points better in Harris … Continue reading

Posted in Election 2022 | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 1 Comment

State Bar complaint against Ted Cruz was dismissed

This story ran a few days ago. A lawyer group that brought ethics complaints against Trump attorneys is trying to make it tougher for lawyers to use the legal system to overturn elections. The group, called the 65 Project, aims … Continue reading

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State and county election result relationships, part 1: How Harris compares

I’ve been thinking a lot lately about the relationship between how statewide Democratic candidates do in Harris County versus how they do overall, and what that might tell us about the state of play in Harris County. Since I started … Continue reading

Posted in Election 2022 | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 5 Comments

Today is a court day for Steven Hotze

As you may recall, local wingnut crackpot Steven Hotze was sued last May by air conditioner repairman David Lopez after a couple of Hotze goons led by former HPD Captain Mark Aguirre assaulted him on the road in an unhinged … Continue reading

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