#election2018

Quinnipiac University has released a new poll of the Texas Senate race between Ted Cruz and Beto O’Rourke. And it has everyone a twitter.

Quinnipiac poll registered voters throughout the state (31% Republican, 26% Democrat and 36% Independent), which resulted in them determining the race is “too close to call.”

Combined with O’Rourke’s impressive fundraising numbers, this definitely makes the race more interesting. This is a poll of registered voters months out from the election though. Will be interesting to see if this holds, particularly among likely voters.

There was an uptick in early voting in the Democratic and Republican primaries this year:

More so for the Democrats, who saw a 105 percent increase over 2014 (if I did my math right). You can see a full breakdown and analysis here. 

TheTexas Tribune also has the early vote numbers broken down by county.

Tomorrow - March 6th - is Election Day, and your last day to vote in the primaries.

The headline: Democrats are voting in a mid-term primary. So far, Democrats have outpaced their 2014 and 2016 early vote turnout through 6 days of early voting. Of the top 15 counties, Democrats have outpaced both 2014 and 2016 totals in 9 of the 15 counties.

This type of turnout doesn’t usually happen in off-year, mid-term elections, as you can see from the figures set forth by TX Elects. 

Of course, voter turnout is still low, but this has raised some questions about the future of some Republican incumbents if this type of turnout continues into the general election. It probably won’t impact any statewide races, but could tilt some Congressional and state house districts in the Democrats favor, particularly in Harris County. 

You can see the early voting totals here.

Happy President’s Day.

Hopefully, you got registered to vote, because if you live in Texas, early voting starts tomorrow, since today is a federal holiday. And early voting will end on March 2nd (Texas Independence Day!). Primary Election Day is March 6th (The Fall of the Alamo).   

If you want to know what districts you’re in, you can search by address here, and if you’re wondering who’s running in your area, you can search here by party primary and county. 

Texas has an open primary system, so you can vote in either party’s primary. Depending on where you live and your preferences, you may want to choose carefully, because most of these elections will be decided in the primaries, not the general election. 

This year, Texans will be voting for several statewide offices, including Governor, Lt. Governor, Ag Commissioner, Land Commissioner, and judges, as well as state senators and representatives. The Texas League of Women Voters has an online voter guide, but not all candidates respond to their questionnaire, so you may want to also check candidate websites, social media, etc. for information on their positions.  

These elections are important, so remembers to get out there and vote.

If you’re a Texas resident, today is your last day to register to vote if you want to vote in the Democratic or Republican primary elections. 

You can download a copy of the application here.

You can go to your voter registrar and turn it in. If you mail it, it must be postmarked today. You can find the address and contact information for your county’s voter registrar here.

Democratic gubernatorial candidates met in San Angelo Monday to begin the race to determine which of them will be the Texas Democratic Party’s sacrificial lamb for 2018 (Source).  There are 9 people running in the primary, but only two probably matter: former Dallas County Sheriff Lupe Valdez and Andrew White (son of former Gov. Mark White). 

Campaign finance reports are due January 16th, so we’ll see where they all stand financially.