Tag Archives: Secretary of State

SOS walks its advisory back even more

Just rescind the whole damn list and let’s pretend this never happened. A week after it flagged tens of thousands of voters for citizenship checks, the Texas secretary of state’s office is now advising counties on how to check their … Continue reading

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Eh, what’s a few thousand mis-identified non-citizens among friends?

No biggie. Texas Gov. Greg Abbott downplayed concerns Thursday about the voter citizenship review initiated last week by his secretary of state, even though it has since become clear that the state’s list of flagged voters swept up thousands of … Continue reading

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As the SOS advisory numbers get revised down

This really can’t be emphasized enough. State officials on Tuesday acknowledged widespread errors in their list of 95,000 Texas voters flagged as potential non-citizens, reinforcing the concerns of advocates who say the state’s effort amounts to illegal voter suppression. In … Continue reading

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A trio of updates about that bogus SOS letter

Most counties reacted skeptically, as well they should. The Texas Tribune reached out to 13 of the 15 counties with the most registered voters on Monday; Galveston was the only one that indicated it would immediately send out letters, even … Continue reading

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Civil rights groups push back on bogus SOS letter

Good. Lawyers with 13 organizations — including the Texas Civil Rights Project, the ACLU of Texas, the League of Women Voters of Texas and the NAACP Legal Defense Fund — are demanding that the state rescind an advisory sent to … Continue reading

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It’s “Let’s lie about vote fraud” season again

The Trib wrote about this in the best possible way, but the shrieking ghouls are out there in force doing what they can to whip up fear. The Texas secretary of state’s office announced Friday it would send local election … Continue reading

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HD108 recount begins

I believe this is the last un-conceded race. The recount for an extremely tight Dallas County race between incumbent Republican Morgan Meyer and Democratic challenger Joanna Cattanach will begin Tuesday. “We appreciate all of the notes of support and emails, … Continue reading

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From the “I may have spoken too soon” department

First, Will Hurd was declared the winner in CD23. But there were still a few precincts out, some in deep red Medina County and others in El Paso County. Hurd started the evening with a 6K early vote lead, but … Continue reading

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Our poor old voting machines

They really do need to be retired. A national spotlight fell on Texas’ voting equipment last week after some voters complained that their votes on electronic voting machines had changed. State election officials chalked it up to user error. Critics … Continue reading

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The eSlate issue

Everyone please take a deep breath. Some straight-ticket voters have reported that voting machines recorded them selecting the candidate of another party for U.S. Senate, exposing a potential problem with the integrity of the state’s high-profile contest between U.S. Sen. … Continue reading

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Yeah, we’re still talking about the risk to our elections

And when we talk about these things, we talk to Dan Wallach. When we think about those who defend the territorial integrity of our nation and state, we tend to imagine well-equipped members of the U.S. armed forces, or perhaps … Continue reading

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Final voter registration numbers

Busy last week. Harris County added more than 11,000 voters to its rolls in the final week before the registration deadline, the last wave in a surge of half a million new Texas voters since the March primaries. Democrats are … Continue reading

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Today is the last day to register to vote

Take action as needed. As Texas’ Tuesday voting registration deadline approaches, Nasser and a number of other deputy voter registrars, volunteers allowed to register voters on the spot, were out in force Saturday evening. While many states allow voters to … Continue reading

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The updated scenarios for a SD06 special election

It’s complicated. The resolution to the special election stalemate between state Sen. Sylvia Garcia and Gov. Greg Abbott likely will come after the November general election and could yield a special election after the Legislature convenes in January. The likely … Continue reading

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Lots more voters registered statewide

Always good to hear. The Texas voter rolls have grown to 15.6 million people, a new record, Texas Secretary of State Rolando Pablos confirmed. That is nearly a 400,000-person increase since March and a jump of 1.6 million since the … Continue reading

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There are reasons why “suspect addresses” may be legit

Real talk here. Texas law requires voters to register where they live. At the same time, state law requires counties to take voters at their word that their voter registration applications are truthful. Registrars who suspect an address may be … Continue reading

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County Attorney declares registration challenges invalid

That’s one word for it. The Harris County Attorney’s office said Tuesday that the 4,000 voter registrations challenged by a county Republican Party official were invalid, and the voter registrar should not have sent suspension notices to more than 1,700 … Continue reading

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Vote suspension update

The situation gets more complicated. Harris County mistakenly placed more than 1,700 voters on its suspension list in response to a local Republican official’s challenge of nearly 4,000 voter registrations, county Tax Assessor-Collector Ann Harris Bennett said Wednesday. The situation … Continue reading

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If you can’t win, cheat

This is some bullshit. Harris County residents keen to vote in the upcoming midterm elections should be very careful about checking their mail. Recently, some residents of Third Ward received letters informing them of an address change they had not … Continue reading

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High schools need to do a better job of making voter registration available to students

As the Texas Civil Rights Project notes, it is the law. In a report published today by the Texas Civil Rights Project, new data from October 2016 to February 2018 shows that just 34 percent of high schools in Texas … Continue reading

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SD19 runoff date set

Mark your calendars. Texas Gov. Greg Abbott has picked Sept. 18 as the date of the special election runoff to replace convicted former state Sen. Carlos Uresti, D-San Antonio. Early voting will run Sept. 10-14. The runoff pits Republican Pete … Continue reading

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From the “Many are called, but few are chosen” department

Here are your non-standard choices for the November election. Independent candidates Candidates unaffiliated with a political party are allowed access to the general election ballot as long as they file the necessary paperwork and gather a certain number of signatures — depending … Continue reading

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Failed indy Senate candidate accuses Cruz campaign of sabotage

I’m gonna fire up the popcorn popper. When independent U.S. Senate candidate Jonathan Jenkins missed the filing deadline for the November ballot last month, it surprised the political observers who had been keeping an eye on his Texas run. Jenkins, … Continue reading

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The Ohio voter purge case

I refer to the Husted v. A. Philip Randolph Institute case that was decided by SCOTUS on Monday. Here’s a long reading list if you want to get up to speed on it: SCOTUSBlog Pema Levy Mark Joseph Stern Kira … Continue reading

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State ordered to come up with fix for voter registration problems

The clock is ticking. Texas has less than a week to tell a federal judge in San Antonio how it will begin complying with the National Voter Registration Act, a decades-old federal law aimed at making it easier for people … Continue reading

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Texas loses another voting rights lawsuit

Anyone else detecting a pattern here? Handing the state another voting rights loss, a federal judge has sided with a civil rights group that claimed Texas violated federal law by failing to register residents to vote when they updated their … Continue reading

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Rep. Johnson files motion to dismiss Dallas County ballot lawsuit

I wish him luck. State Rep. Eric Johnson on Monday asked a judge to dismiss a lawsuit that would kick him and other Democrats off the November general election ballot. The suit, brought by the Dallas County Republican Party, contends … Continue reading

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Dallas County GOP sues to knock basically all Dallas Democrats off the ballot

Well, that escalated quickly. Dallas County Republicans have filed a lawsuit to have 128 Democrats kicked off the March 6 primary ballot. The lawsuit, filed in Dallas County late Friday, contends that Dallas County Democratic Party Chairman Carol Donovan didn’t … Continue reading

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So what’s up with the Farenthold ballot situation?

The Trib provides an update. So how did the Texas Republican Party manage to remove Farenthold from the primary ballot? The short answer is that they violated the election code, according to state officials. But the Texas Secretary of State’s … Continue reading

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So where do we stand with handing over voter info to the Trump commission?

The DMN asks the question. Have state officials turned over Texas voter information to the federal government? In short, not yet. A lawsuit by the Texas NAACP and the Texas League of Women Voters has halted the state’s release of … Continue reading

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Diana Davila sues over ballot rejection

There’s one of these every cycle. Diana Davila said in a lawsuit filed Wednesday in state district court that her application to run for justice of the peace Precinct 6, Place 2 in the March primary election was inappropriately rejected … Continue reading

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Farenthold gets off the ballot

It started with this. The Republican Party of Texas managed to clear a path Tuesday in federal court for its chairman, James Dickey, to remove U.S. Rep. Blake Farenthold’s name from primary ballots. But as of press time, a party … Continue reading

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Election Day 2017

It’s time to vote if you haven’t already. Not many people have, as we know. Harris County turnout is expected to remain feeble through Election Day, with no marquee race to draw voters to the polls and thousands still displaced … Continue reading

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SOS halted from handing over voter info

Good. A Texas district judge has issued a temporary restraining order preventing Texas Secretary of State Rolando Pablos from handing voter information to President Donald Trump’s voter fraud investigation commission. The order, which came out Tuesday, adds Texas to a … Continue reading

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