Tag Archives: voter suppression

Mail ballot rejections were down for November

Good, but still room for more improvement. More than 10,000 ballots were rejected in the state’s largest counties in Tuesday’s midterm election, making for a rejection rate of about 4 percent, according to preliminary data from the secretary of state’s … Continue reading

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So what if anything will come of that SCOTx ruling on the extra voting time?

I have no idea. The Texas Supreme Court on Tuesday set the stage for a legal fight over whether to count ballots Harris County voters cast during an extended hour of voting ordered by a lower court. That lower court … Continue reading

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What AG “task force”?

Who knows? The fact that Paxton – who helped lead the charge to overturn the 2020 national election results and promoted false claims that it was stolen – now planned to send people from his office to monitor Harris County … Continue reading

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Justice Department agrees to send election monitors

Good. The U.S. Department of Justice announced Monday it will send election monitors to three Texas counties — Harris, Dallas and Waller — to keep an eye on local compliance with federal voting rights laws on Election Day. Monitors from … 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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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

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How long has it been since the Fifth Circuit upheld a voter suppression law?

However long it’s been, they’re back at it. A federal appeals court on Wednesday revived a 2021 Texas law that set new residency requirements for voter registration, including one that civil rights groups alleged essentially blocked college students from signing … 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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Of course voters of color has more mail ballots rejected

Water is wet, the sun rises in the east, voter suppression laws disproportionately affect voters of color. Alice Yi of Austin is frustrated when she thinks about the March primary election, when her 92-year-old father tried to vote by mail, … Continue reading

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Harris County asks for federal vote monitors

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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!

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

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

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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