Tag Archives: Bryan Hughes

Eighteen million registered voters

Posted on October 5, 2024 by Charles Kuffner

Number go up. Texas has been one of the nation’s fastest-growing states since the 1970s, but its voter rolls have at times been stagnant. From 2000 to 2012, the number of registered voters grew by 1.2 million. In only the … Continue reading →

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More on Ken Paxton’s ethicslessness

Posted on July 30, 2024 by Charles Kuffner

Yes, that’s a word. It’s also a good description of the state of our Attorney General. Three decades following its inception, the [Texas Ethics C]ommission is toothless. Compliance of Texas’ ethics laws is largely voluntary. That’s because the agency relies … Continue reading →

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Apparently there’s a lawsuit challenging the 2023 constitutional amendment elections

Posted on December 2, 2023 by Charles Kuffner

I feel like I’m running out of synonyms for “deranged” and “absurd”. Lawsuits based on false claims about voting equipment could delay millions of dollars in cost of living increases for retired teachers expected to arrive in January. The lawsuits … Continue reading →

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Yet another Paxton roundup

Posted on August 25, 2023 by Charles Kuffner

The Senate trial starts in 11 days, and there continues to be so much Paxton news. Political pressure is intensifying around Republican state senators who will serve as the jurors in the impeachment trial of suspended Attorney General Ken Paxton. … Continue reading →

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Paxton attorneys seek to bar three Democratic Senators from the impeachment trial

Posted on July 22, 2023 by Charles Kuffner

Why stop at three? Why not try to bar them all? Lawyers for suspended Attorney General Ken Paxton are pushing to disqualify three Democratic state senators as jurors in his upcoming impeachment trial. Paxton’s lawyers filed a motion Friday that … Continue reading →

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Farewell, ERIC

Posted on July 22, 2023 by Charles Kuffner

Into the unknown… The Texas secretary of state submitted its exit notice Thursday to a national coalition that is one of the best tools to combat voter fraud, according to a copy of the letter obtained by Votebeat. The withdrawal from the … Continue reading →

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Another Paxton roundup

Posted on June 26, 2023 by Charles Kuffner

The hits keep on coming… So, just how transparent is this Senate trial going to be? Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick has promised maximum transparency in the impeachment trial for suspended Attorney General Ken Paxton, but trial rules recently adopted by … Continue reading →

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The smallest possible loosening of abortion restrictions

Posted on June 26, 2023 by Charles Kuffner

Better than nothing, but not by much. Doctors will have more legal protections to perform emergency abortions under a bill signed by Gov. Greg Abbott, following numerous reports of medical care being delayed due to confusion over the state’s abortion … Continue reading →

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What might come after ERIC

Posted on June 15, 2023 by Charles Kuffner

An interesting report from TPM. The Alan Vera Memorial Act both forces the state to leave ERIC, and also to find a replacement vendor — one that can do what ERIC does with a start-up cost of $100,000 or less, … Continue reading →

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A tale of two elections bills

Posted on May 28, 2023 by Charles Kuffner

The good news. Texas lawmakers have voted to reverse an expensive state law requiring election officials to replace all their current vote-counting equipment with technology that doesn’t exist. An unprecedented mandate the Legislature passed in 2021, without fully realizing its … Continue reading →

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Lege may fix one particularly dumb aspect of its omnibus voter suppression law

Posted on April 17, 2023 by Charles Kuffner

A small bit of progress. Texas lawmakers are trying to undo an expensive election problem they didn’t realize they had created in the first place. In 2021, they passed a law that is set to require counties to purchase vote-counting … Continue reading →

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A brief but dismal legislative update

Posted on April 6, 2023 by Charles Kuffner

Just a few recent news stories, to give you an idea of what’s happening in the Legislative session, and why I have been avoiding it. Item 1: Republican Texas senators on Monday reversed themselves and voted against allowing transgender kids currently being treated with puberty … Continue reading →

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There’s nothing like ERIC

Posted on April 2, 2023 by Charles Kuffner

Be careful what you seek to destroy, Republicans. With some Texas Republicans pushing the state to abandon one its best tools for preventing voter fraud — a coalition of states that share voting roll data to weed out duplicate and … Continue reading →

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Founder of that voter roll maintenance program that election denialists hate has stepped down

Posted on March 15, 2023 by Charles Kuffner

I’m sure this will calm everyone down and restore the faith everyone once had in this program. Right? David Becker, an election law advocate who helped create the Electronic Registration Information Center (ERIC), is vacating his position on its board … Continue reading →

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The latest obsession of election denialist crackpots

Posted on March 14, 2023 by Charles Kuffner

You may want to sit down before you read this. In virtual meetings taking place over a year, right-wing activists and Republican legislators have stoked concern over a multistate coalition that Texas and more than 30 other states use to … Continue reading →

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In support of Crystal Mason

Posted on February 23, 2023 by Charles Kuffner

Hoping for the best. The same month Tarrant County officials announced the creation of an election integrity task force, a group of 14 bipartisan prosecutors threw their weight behind an effort to acquit the woman at the center of a high-profile … Continue reading →

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The big voter suppression law is even worse than you thought

Posted on February 12, 2023 by Charles Kuffner

Such a lovely little surprise tucked in there. When state lawmakers passed a sweeping and controversial new election law in 2021, they quietly included a provision that drew little notice or debate. But election administration experts say the measure is … Continue reading →

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Your periodic reminder that Ken Paxton’s vote fraud claims are bullshit

Posted on November 29, 2022 by Charles Kuffner

A long Chron story that documents the bullshit. The first of the big cases to fizzle was in Gregg County. Prosecutors and local politicians announced an investigation soon after county commissioner candidate Shannon Brown won the March 2018 Precinct 4 … Continue reading →

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John Scott keeps wanting to have it both ways

Posted on November 3, 2022 by Charles Kuffner

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 →

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Plan B

Posted on September 7, 2022 by Charles Kuffner

I have three things to say about this. On Friday, Gov. Greg Abbott told The Dallas Morning News that rape victims can take emergency contraception, like Plan B, to prevent a pregnancy. With abortion now banned in Texas, even in … Continue reading →

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That stupid social media censorship law has been unblocked

Posted on May 13, 2022 by Charles Kuffner

The Fifth Circuit continues to debase itself. A federal appeals court on Wednesday reinstated a Republican-backed Texas law that prohibits large social media companies from banning users over their political viewpoints. The decision hands a win to Republicans who have … Continue reading →

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More on the abortion funds’ lawsuits

Posted on March 25, 2022 by Charles Kuffner

Good overview in the WaPo. The Texas law has so far withstood multiple court challenges by employing a highly controversial legal strategy: empowering private citizens to sue anyone who helps facilitate an abortion after the legal limit. Abortion rights advocates … Continue reading →

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Abortion funds file their own lawsuits

Posted on March 20, 2022 by Charles Kuffner

It’s good to fight back. I hope it can be successful. This week, the Lilith Fund and Texas Equal Access Fund, two of Texas’ oldest abortion funds, announced legal action (available to view here, here, here, and here) against two private individuals in Texas and two organizations based … 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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Anti-abortion zealots make their move under SB8

Posted on February 25, 2022 by Charles Kuffner

This is where it really starts to get scary and ugly. For nearly six months, as Texas’ novel abortion law has wended its way through the courts, abortion providers and opponents have been locked in a stalemate. The law, known … Continue reading →

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Hey, remember when disability rights advocates were worried about the voter suppression bill?

Posted on February 21, 2022 by Charles Kuffner

They were right to be worried. Because of course they were. As polls opened up for early voting this week, disability advocates say they still do not have adequate guidance from the state about new voter assistance rules and worry … Continue reading →

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Crystal Mason using SB1 to try to overturn her illegal voting conviction

Posted on December 13, 2021 by Charles Kuffner

Hope this works. It would be one small good thing to come out of that otherwise harmful law. Crystal Mason, the Tarrant County woman whose illegal voting conviction has garnered national attention, is asking for a Texas appeals court to … Continue reading →

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Social media censorship law blocked

Posted on December 2, 2021 by Charles Kuffner

For now. As long as the outlaw Fifth Circuit exists, we can’t say more than that. A federal judge on Wednesday blocked a Texas law that seeks to restrict how social media companies moderate their content and was championed by … Continue reading →

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Social media censorship lawsuit has its day in court

Posted on December 1, 2021 by Charles Kuffner

It’s a very dumb law that will hopefully be stopped before it takes effect tomorrow. Lawyers for two large tech industry groups appeared Monday in federal court in Austin to argue that Texas’ new social media law — inspired by … Continue reading →

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It’s mostly about the gay books

Posted on November 13, 2021 by Charles Kuffner

Color me not surprised. While a Texas House committee chairman’s inquiry into schoolbooks has often been linked to new state laws limiting how teachers address slavery and racism, most of the literature he’s called into question deals with a wholly … Continue reading →

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Chick-Fil-A and the “heartbeat” lawsuits

Posted on October 21, 2021 by Charles Kuffner

I’d forgotten all about this. A case that’s before the Texas Supreme Court this fall could have strong implications for the future of the state’s newly adopted abortion ban, the most prohibitive in the nation. The suit relates to a … Continue reading →

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The Lege may fail to enshrine Abbott’s max anti-vaxx order into law

Posted on October 19, 2021 by Charles Kuffner

One bit of good news. Legislation intended to block any Texas entity, including hospitals and private businesses, from mandating COVID-19 vaccines for employees has stalled out in the Senate with less than two days left in the third special legislative … Continue reading →

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The poisoned fruit of the anti-Critical Race Theory tree

Posted on October 17, 2021 by Charles Kuffner

Pass stupid, racist laws, get stupid, racist outcomes. A top administrator with the Carroll Independent School District in Southlake advised teachers last week that if they have a book about the Holocaust in their classroom, they should also offer students … Continue reading →

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If in Texas you can’t get justice…

Posted on October 7, 2021 by Charles Kuffner

…Try somewhere else. An abortion provider in Texas took the unusual step Tuesday of asking a federal judge in another state to declare unconstitutional the six-week-ban on the procedure that took effect last month in Texas. Lawyers for Dr. Alan Braid, … Continue reading →

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