Much to do about nothing on Texas early voting bill?

texasredistricting:

HB 2093 took up the bulk of the House elections committee’s morning session today, but, in the end, it may be for naught - with the bill’s author State Rep. Patricia Harless (R-Spring) suggesting that she might pull the bill and propose it instead as the subject of a post-session legislative study.

During the committee hearing, True the Vote, the Association of Republican County Chairmen, and the Harris County clerk testified for the bill, citing the difficulty of hiring election workers for a two-week early voting period and suggesting that having more early voting locations (but a shorter period) might be a better administrative answer.

The bulk of the testimony, however, was against the bill.

Several county election administrators testified that the bill, in fact, might increase costs if they were to try to have more early voting locations in response to a reduction in the number of days of early voting. They explained, that’s because they would need buy additional equipment and hire more staff for the additional locations.  If funds for additional equipment were not available, one administrator said it likely would mean moving early voting to larger sites since in many counties nearly half the early vote comes in the week that the bill would lop off. She and other administrators suggested that was not as easy as it sounds as a practical matter.

A number of other witnesses testified about a negative impact on voting in Texas and pointed out that the issue cut across party lines - noting that Mitt Romney received 65% of his total vote and Ted Cruz 66% of his in early voting (a higher percentage than Democratic candidates received).

Glen Maxey of the Texas Democratic Party, in fact, went so far as to call HB 2093 “a voter suppression bill for Republicans.”  

This is another reason to #FireStan (Stan Stanart, Harris County Clerk) who testified in support of this bill, when many Harris County early voting locations  observed long waiting lines during the election in 2012.

Backgrounder: Early Voting in Texas

texasredistricting:

On Monday, the House elections committee is set to take up a proposal that would sharply cut back the early voting period in Texas.

Here’s a backgrounder on early voting in Texas and how it compares to other states.

How many states currently offer early voting?

32 states plus the District of Columbia currently allow some form of “no-excuse needed” in-person early voting. In addition, a number of those states (plus New Jersey) also allow no-excuse vote by mail, and Oregon conducts all elections by mail.

How long has Texas had early voting?

‘No excuse’ in-person early voting has existed in Texas since 1987, when the Texas Legislature passed HB 612.

However, the original law only provided for a limited number of early voting locations, primarily at county offices.

The state’s current early voting system dates in substantial part to broad reforms in 1991, which expanded the number of early voting locations, especially in urban counties, and introduced required minimum hours.

How does Texas’ early voting period compare to other states?

Texas law currently provides for 12 days of early voting for for the general election and Texas primary, ending the Friday before election day. For the May municipal and local government elections, the early voting period is shorter - just 9 days - starting 12 days and ending 4 days before the election.  

The 12-day period used in the general election and primary makes Texas about average in terms of the length of its early voting period, although a number of states, including Indiana, Maine, New Mexico, Ohio, Vermont, and Wyoming, allow for anywhere between 25-45 days of early voting.

On the other hand, if Texas were to adopt HB 2093, its early voting period would fall to seven days for the November general election and Texas primary.** That would make it one of the shortest among states offering early voting. Only Maryland (6 days), Georgia and Louisiana (5 days), and Oklahoma (3 days) would have shorter periods - and Maryland, Georgia, and Oklahoma offer ‘no excuse’ mail voting to anyone who wants to do so. Texas’ early voting period would be even shorter than the controversial 8-day period used in Florida in 2012.

A full state-by-state rundown on early voting periods in 2012 can be found here.

** And potentially only 5 days. HB 2093 in its filed form is a little unclear. The 7-day early voting period under HB 2093 would start on a Saturday. However, section 85.001(b) of the Texas Election Code currently provides that when the early-voting period starts on a weekend, the start date moves to the following Monday. HB 2093, in its filed form, does not change that provision - meaning that early voting would run from Monday through Friday. HB 2093 would not affect the 12-day early voting period for May municipal and local elections.

How many people use in-person early voting in Texas?

A lot. In 2012, nearly half of all registered voters in Collin and Montgomery counties voted early. In total, more than half of the state’s 15 largest counties saw turnout rates in early voting in excess of 40%. Another 5 counties saw turnout between 30%-40%. 

Perhaps more importantly, in each of the 15 counties, in-person early voting has become the preferred way to vote - in many cases by a wide margin.

This continues a 20-year trend. Although voter turnout in Texas continues to be among the worst in the nation (50th in 2010 and 47th in 2012), the last two decades have seen a dramatic shift from election day voting to early voting.

The people early voting in person also closely mirror the Texas November electorate overall, though in-person early voting remans more popular among older voters, Anglos, and women (full report here):

Are any other states looking at reducing the amount of early voting they offer?

Yes. At least eight other states have bills pending that would reduce the number of early voting days. These include North Carolina, where the legislature is debating bills that would cut the the state’s early voting period from 15 days to 7 and also end same-day voter registration during early voting. The legislature in Nebraska also looks close to embracing legislation that will reduce its in-person early voting period from 35 to 30 days.

On the other hand, Florida’s Gov. Rick Scott has endorsed efforts to return to a 14-day early voting period after long lines in 2012.  And nationally there has been some discussion of legislation that would include uniform national early voting dates.

 Would a reduction in early voting days be subject to preclearance under section 5?

Yes. Assuming section 5 of the Voting Rights Act survives Shelby Co. and that Texas remains subject to it, then a reduction in the availability of early voting would need to be precleared either by the Justice Department or a three-judge panel.

Texas scrambles to re-fund family planning after a $73m in savings turns into a projected $273m loss after a huge spike in unplanned births for low-income families.

abaldwin360:

(The New York Times) - Using taxpayer dollars to finance family-planning services has become politically thorny in Texas, largely because of Republican lawmakers’ assertions that the women’s health clinics providing that care are affiliated with abortion providers. In the fiscal crunch of 2011, the Legislature cut the state’s family-planning budget by two-thirds, with some lawmakers claiming that they were defunding the “abortion industry.” Researchers at the University of Texas at Austin, found that more than 50 family-planning clinics had closed statewide as a result.

Now, amid estimates that the cuts could lead to 24,000 additional 2014-15 births at a cost to taxpayers of $273 million,  lawmakers are seeking a way to restore financing without ruffling feathers.

read more

Remember how everyone kept saying this is exactly what would happen if Planned Parenthood was de-funded?

Now Texas republicans are getting bitten in the ass by their own policies, and now have  a problem were they can’t reinstate funding because they have been painting Planned Parenthood as the most evil thing in the world.

Which is why Senator Dan Patrick (Tea Party Caucus Leader) said at the Public Education Forum I attended a week ago that health care was becoming the biggest part of the state’s budget, but didn’t explain further.  

To which I say, Nelson style: “Ha-HA!”

(via dendroica)

Special Election - Senate District 6

For those of you that don’t live in Texas, you should be aware that the 140 day biennial Texas Legislative Session has begun.  So, from time to time, you’re likely to see me get extremely angry over silly little things like “rainy day fund”, “the budget”, “idiotic tea party Republicans” (though, isn’t that just kind of understood), “stupid redneck crazy gun freaks who want to arm teachers in our schools, but not do something silly like pay them a decent and living and comparable wage” (or, honestly, stupid redneck crazy gun freaks in general), and “stupid school voucher ideas”.  I may also just yell extemporaneously ”OMG they can’t f___ing be serious”, although between you and me, if I’m in acceptable company, I’m going to be using the whole word, not just the first letter.  

During the election last year, State Senator Mario Gallegos finally succumbed to his illness and left his seat vacant.  So, right now, we’re a Democrat short in the State Senate, which, however you look at it, is bad.   Because the seat is likely to go to another Democrat, Governor *coughs* Goodhair *coughs* Perry took his sweet time in announcing when the special election would take place, so it is taking place on the very last day it possibly can at the end of this month, and on a weekend.  

There are 8 contenders in the race, and most likely will head to a run-off election.   The two top contenders are Former City and County Commissioner Sylvia Garcia and current State House Representative, Carol Alvarado.   Without going into too much detail about the reasons why, Sylvia Garcia won the endorsement of the AFL-CIO, and is the preferred candidate among many local unions who do not do individual endorsements, but use the official AFL-CIO recommendation on their own.   It was a difficult decision, because in the past Carol Alvarado has been a sometime ally to the unions.  

Sylvia Garcia also won the single endorsement of the Texas Organizing Project, an organization I greatly respect, and, in all honesty, she is the candidate that I have volunteered for (honestly, very slightly) and whom I give a personal recommendation for, to people that ask me.  

What I have been surprised by, though, is Carol Alvarado’s complete shift away from unions and community organizations that have helped her not only become a former City Council Member, but a current seated State Representative.  Our state legislature is currently seriously examining very harmful legislation to public education that would allow for a voucher system.  This, after they have done everything to defund the very system that they say is failing, and this, after they have gone solely to standardized testing as a determination of school performance, and this, after they do what they can to increase class size exponentially and, etc… etc…  So, what you have is, a group of legislators that are trying to destroy public education, taking control of the very institute they hate (my own state Senator Dan Patrick, leading the charge, to my utter shame).   

As you can imagine, the voucher programs currently under consideration are not favoured by the teacher union thugs like AFT.  Which is why I’m perplexed by Carol Alvarado’s newfound alignment with a horrible organization, Stand for Children, which is an organization that believes that schools can be run like businesses and for a profit.  

Without standing too long on my soapbox about how business and government are two different entities and have two vastly different end games, I will say that any time we attempt to privatize any part of our educational system, we meet with disaster.  In my own school district, Cy-Fair, in one of the reddest parts of Harris County, the attempt to privatize school buses, was met by a number of companies bidding on the privilege, their bids all dramatically low, until they officially took over.  Eventually, the privatization was completely nullified and Cy-Fair regained control over their school bus system, precisely because of the cost over-run of the attempts at privatization.  

What really makes me wonder is: how Carol Alvarado hopes this is a winning strategy.  I knew she wanted to be a State Senator, even to the possible detriment of losing a good and powerful Democratic Representative in the House during the session, a point I made to her not once, but twice, but how is it a winning strategy to go into a community where privatization would dramatically harm not just the educators, but the students and the families?   How can she hope to gain the support of leaders in that very community like the Houston Federation of Teachers and other union households who are voting at a far higher percentage than their general population brethren?  

I’ve read about people selling their soul to win elections.  Hell, I’ve heard about it several times, too, but when you witness it firsthand, it is a different thing entirely.  By proudly accepting Stand for Children’s endorsement, Carol Alvarado has lost what little faith I had in her voice in the Texas Legislature as a whole, and as a union “thug” myself, I cannot stand by and watch as she helps the Texas GOP further destroy the public education system in this state.   They honestly do a good job all by themselves on that front.  

Senate District 6 needs a Senator that will honor Mario Gallegos’s long legacy in the Senate, and not hold hostage the future of the children of Senate District 6.  In short, Senate District 6 needs the only tough, smart, and savvy figure in the race.  Senate District 6 needs Sylvia Garcia.