Originally published at: Dallas Republicans Warned That Texas Was Turning Blue. Then They Wrecked an Election. - TPM – Talking Points Memo
DALLAS – For this city’s Republican Party, the 2026 primaries were supposed to set a national example. Led by Col. Allen West, the party wanted to run the election as purely as it could: no electronic voting machines. A full hand count. For West, the timing was crucial. He told officials that the state was changing,…
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Anyone want to guess whether this chaos will be reflected in the rushed gerrymandering taking place in Louisiana and other States?
Stay tuned.
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I thought we were rid of that kook Allen West.
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Just FYI, our electronic voting machines print out paper ballots that the voter can review for accuracy, and it is those paper ballots that get counted.
These people are fucking morons anyway.
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That kook was just barely too rational for the Dallas County Republican Party. He ended up having to resign.
They’re really working at proving the Crazification Factor here in Dallas County.
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In Dallas, it gave the local GOP a sandbox in which to build its ideal election. It announced in September that it would pull out of the joint agreement with the Democrats. It would bar countywide polling, eliminate electronic voting machines, and conduct a hand count so long as costs did not exceed $500,000.
Republicans also accused county election officials of failing to notify people. The county said that it spent $1 million on notifying people of the change.
I guess technically notifying people of the change back to precinct voting isn’t doing a hand recount, but talk about cutting off your nose to spite your face. “It’s less efficient and more expensive!” is quite a tagline.
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That $1 million to notify voters of the change was county money, not party money. The $500k for the hand count would have been party money.
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‘nonwhite immigrants replacing “heritage Texans.”’
For “heritage Texans” read neo-confederate white supremacists.
Can’t happen fast enough.
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Good to know, though it doesn’t change the fact that the whole enterprise is a massive, costly boondoggle that makes the election worse.
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Yes, because they are cretins.
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Allen West has done remarkably well mareting himself, as a one-term member of the House who couldn’t get re-elected to a second term in red-state Florida more than a decade ago.
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These tactics will likely backfire on Republicans this year. The vast majority of the US population is mad at them (and getting more angry by the week). All attempts by them to cheat in order to maintain power just fuels that anger even more. Conservative independents are bailing on them now, and that’s not a demographic they can disenfranchise. Gerrymandering will also backfire on them if they lose by enough of a majority.
In short, all of the games Republicans are playing right now will probably only results in even greater loses for them come November.
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It wasn’t cheating. They’re just stupid.
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I live in Tucson (Pima County). We vote by paper ballot. The ballot is mailed to me. I fill it out and mail it back. The interesting yet boring part is we have access to a cam of the counting so I can watch the 15 or so workers hand counting ballots. There’s no trickery with electronics except there is a machine that counts ballots and numbers must agree.
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This is what my sister in Austin described as how she votes. There was a time when me in St Louis County also voted on an electronic machine, but our didn’t print out paper trail.
But doesn’t each county determine what machines or paper ballots to use? And where does each county election board get the money to up grade/change their voting methods?
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The state certifies vendors, and then the local officials select which system they want to use. Funding is from a mix of sources.
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“impersonating a public servant.”
As far as I am concerned this covers every Republican politician in Texas.
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Some “heritage Texans” were Hispanic (Tejanos), but the people that lost the Civil War have worked overtime to erase them from history.
The book “Forget the Alamo” is a good read on how Texans have rewritten their history.
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And some “heritage Texans” who had slave-owning ancestors are repulsed by historical revisionism and the revival of overt racism. The whole “white males terrified of losing power” isn’t just in Texas. Those people just have control here for now. And it’s embarrassing. It makes us all look weird and stupid. But I’m hopeful that will change in November.
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My ex-BIL grew up in Premont, TX. They still have the land charter from whichever King of Spain was on the throne when came from Spain. And he talked about how his family didn’t come to the US, the US came to them.
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