Tag Archives: voter registration

Voter registration update

However you look at it, we have a lot of registered voters now. With three weeks before the Oct. 11 deadline for the November elections, nearly 80% of the state’s voting age population is registered to vote, putting the number … Continue reading

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Let’s not go overboard about these voter registration numbers

Sure it’s nice to see, but a little perspective is in order. In Texas, it’s not just women who are fired up about access to abortion and registering to vote in large numbers following this summer’s historic Supreme Court decision … Continue reading

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State ordered to turn over voter purge data

Very good. A federal judge ruled this week that the state is violating U.S. law by refusing to release its list of more than 11,000 registered voters that it identified as potential noncitizens, and ordered the release of the data … Continue reading

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Law against some new voter registration restrictions is struck down

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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A Skeet Jones update

NBC News does us the favor of an update on Skeet Jones, the (allegedly) cattle-rustlin’ County Judge of Loving County. On a December day in 2021, Loving County Judge Skeet Jones, 71, climbed atop an oilfield tank surrounded by wide-open … Continue reading

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The continued Republican threat to voting

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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Have van, will travel to register voters

Nice. Tayhlor Coleman keeps a framed Texas voter roll from 1867 in the van she calls home to remind her why she chose to live there in the first place. Names from her family tree appear here and there throughout … Continue reading

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Yes, most people will generally support the idea of decent election reforms

But that doesn’t mean they’ll vote for politicians who support them, and that right there makes all the difference. From the UH Hobby School, here’s part four of their January 2022 public opinion fest, which began with their election poll. … Continue reading

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Voting Rights Groups Sue Texas for Failure to Disclose Records Related to Voter Purges

From the inbox: The Campaign Legal Center (CLC), the American Civil Liberties Union Foundation of Texas, the Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund (MALDEF), Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law and DĒMOS filed a lawsuit asking the U.S. … Continue reading

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The story of the paper shortage and the voter registration forms, in two tweets

One: . New: League of Women Voters of Texas has sent a letter to the Texas SOS threatening to sue the state unless they are provided with more copies of new voter registration forms. They say SOS is in violation … Continue reading

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Sure, let’s blame the supply chain for voter registration problems

I have a simple solution for this, if anyone wants to hear it. The Texas Secretary of State’s office is having more trouble than usual getting enough voter registration cards to groups who help Texans register to vote. Sam Taylor, … Continue reading

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Fraudit fizzling

Who could have ever predicted this would be a big ol’ nothingburger? The Texas secretary of state’s office has released the first batch of results from its review into the 2020 general election, finding few issues despite repeated, unsubstantiated claims … Continue reading

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How’s that online voter registration thing going?

Pretty well, it seems. So well, perhaps, that the state of Texas doesn’t want to tell you how well. Since a federal judge forced Texas nearly a year and a half ago to offer limited online voter registration, 1.5 million … Continue reading

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From the “Keeping track of all these lawsuits is hard” department

Spotted on Democracy Docket: Today, a judge for the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Texas denied a motion to dismiss Vote.org v. Callanen. The case, filed earlier this summer, challenges Texas’ “wet signature” law that requires individuals who submit … Continue reading

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The botched “non-citizen” voter purge continues

At some point we need to recognize the fact that our Secretary of State’s office is completely, and maybe maliciously, inept at doing this. Texas’ last attempt to scour its voting rolls for noncitizens two years ago quickly devolved into … Continue reading

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We continue to register more voters

Seventeen million and counting. Texas has surpassed 17 million registered voters for the first time, continuing a pace that is reshaping the state’s electorate so rapidly that even the politicians cannot keep up. Despite a series of new election regulations … Continue reading

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2021 Day Five EV report: A one week checkin

One work week, anyway. Here are the vote totals after five days of early voting. The first thing to notice is that about 70% of the votes cast so far have been by mail: Mail ballots = 36,517 Early in … Continue reading

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The Women’s March, the next generation

I look forward to a day when these aren’t necessary, but in the meantime I am grateful to all who cared enough to participate or were there in spirit. A crowd of more than 10,000 turned out Saturday in downtown … Continue reading

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A kinder, gentler voter purge

How nice. Two years after Texas officials fumbled an effort to double-check the voting rolls on a hunt for non-citizens — and instead threatened the voting rights of nearly 60,000 eligible Texans — similar efforts to purge non-citizen voters are … Continue reading

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Final settlement in Motor Voter 2.0 lawsuit

From Democracy Docket: Last Friday, individual Texan voters, the Texas Democratic Party, the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee (DCCC) and the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee (DSCC) settled a five-year long lawsuit with Texas over its noncompliance with the National Voter Registration … Continue reading

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Here are your new SB7s

We start with the House. The Texas House is starting off on a new foot on the contentious elections proposal that blew up the regular legislative session. As a special session reviving the Republican-priority bill got underway Thursday, there were … Continue reading

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Chron story on Odus Evbagharu

Some good stuff here. When Odus Evbagharu, a 28-year-old legislative staffer and campaign organizer, took the reins of the Harris County Democratic Party Sunday evening, he inherited a party that stands on some of its firmest footing in years, despite … Continue reading

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First post-legislative session voting rights lawsuit filed

Surely not the last. In a federal lawsuit filed Tuesday, a Latino civil rights group and a voting rights group say a bill signed into law by Texas Governor Greg Abbott last week that prevents Texans from using a commerical … Continue reading

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You can announce any time now, Beto

Sunday at your rally would have been a good time, but honestly I’m not too picky about that. About three weeks after Texas Democrats staged a dramatic walkout to temporarily kill a GOP-led voting restrictions bill, dozens of the party’s … Continue reading

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Beto’s still doing his thing

I’m still hoping it will turn into another thing. More than just the Houston heat fired up the crowd at voting rights rally Sunday, where former Congressman Beto O’Rourke urged action against a restrictive bills being championed by Republicans. “I … Continue reading

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The next voter registration project

Necessary, but not sufficient. Texas Democrats’ takeaways from the 2020 election are clear: to take back our state from Texas Republicans, Democrats need to register more voters. With Republicans’ increasing extremism and relentless attacks on Texans this spring, the stakes … Continue reading

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SOS Hughs resigns

In retrospect, I should have seen this coming. Texas Secretary of State Ruth Ruggero Hughs announced Friday she will step down from her post as the state’s top elections official, less than two years into her term. The decision comes … Continue reading

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The voting location restrictions of SB7

As Michael Li said on Twitter, this is breathtaking, and not at all in a good way. The number of Election Day polling places in largely Democratic parts of major Texas counties would fall dramatically under a Republican proposal to … Continue reading

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Trying to make the sausage less bad

RG Ratcliffe walsk us through some bipartisan negotiations on HB6, the House version of the big Senate voter suppression bill, as three Democrats who want to make this bad bill slightly less bad work with a couple of Republicans who … Continue reading

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Making voting worse

I’ve spent a lot of time this year writing about how Republicans in the Legislature want to make it harder to vote. That’s undeniably true, but it doesn’t fully capture what’s going on. Voting is a thing that most of … Continue reading

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More on the poll watcher problem

It’s all right here. You just have to pay attention to what they’re saying. As Texas Republican lawmakers seek to expand the powers of partisan poll watchers — and Democrats warn doing so will lead to intimidation of minority voters … Continue reading

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House committee passes its voter suppression bill

I remain pessimistic about this, but we have no choice but to fight. A Texas House committee on Thursday advanced an elections bill that would make it a state jail felony for local election officials to distribute an application to … Continue reading

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Charter amendment petitions are in

I need a simpler name for this thing, so that Future Me will have an easier time searching for relevant posts. Houston voters likely will get to decide in November whether City Council members should have the power to place … Continue reading

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First major vote suppression bill passes

Nothing’s going to stop them. Senate Republicans on Thursday cleared the way for new, sweeping restrictions to voting in Texas that take particular aim at forbidding local efforts meant to widen access. In an overnight vote after more than seven … Continue reading

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