Gary Gates defeats Eliz Markowitz in Texas House District 28 runoff in Fort Bend County

[TexasTowelie]

FORT BEND COUNTY, Texas — Republican Gary Gates took the Texas House District 28 seat with 58 percent of the votes in the nationally targeted special election runoff.

Democrat Eliz Markowitz released a statement following the results:

“We knew this election would be tough — it’s not easy to take on Republicans in an off-year special election, but we made this seat competitive in a way it’s never been before. We head into November having established a movement for change and that movement will continue across the state of Texas through November. This is a grassroots campaign dedicated to putting people over special interests, and we’ve built a network that will last for years to come.”

Democrats hoped a win in State House District 28 race could help turn the Texas House blue and signal bigger political change ahead in November.

District 28 is a historically Republican seat in a growing and diversifying area. Since incumbent Dr. John Zerwas resigned in September 2019, outside groups have spent hundreds of thousands of dollars to flip the seat.

Read more: https://www.khou.com/article/news/local/all-eyes-on-nationally-watched-texas-house-runoff-race-in-fort-bend-county/285-72303db3-9adc-4494-ba2d-ccdb9123a86a

[diva77]

1. There were problems with the Hart Intercivic voting machines in the 2018 elections that were never

addressed.

Glitch in voting machines causing problems in some Texas cities
https://kfoxtv.com/news/election/glitch-in-voting-machines-causing-problems-in-some-texas-cities

by Ted Oberg / Trisha Garcia Saturday, October 27th 2018
SNIP

EL PASO, Texas (KFOX14) — A technology glitch may be responsible for some Texas voters not voting for their candidate of choice.

The midterm elections are two weeks away, but voters in Texas are already casting their ballots.

A former El Paso Times reporter is reporting that more than 82,000 people have cast their vote in the first week of early voting.

That numbers exceeds the entire early voting numbers for the 2014 midterm elections.

Texans in other places, like Houston and Fort Bend County, are reporting that selecting a straight-party ballot is not a guaranteed way to vote for their candidate of choice.

Mickey Blake was one of the voters in the long lines in Houston earlier this week.

She says she selected a straight Democratic ticket, so she expected all Democrats, especially U.S. Rep. Beto O’Rourke. When she looked, though, she says incumbent Republican Sen. Ted Cruz was selected.

Blake says she left the booth, backed up and did it again, then a third time.

She says the same thing kept happening.

Cordell Hosea says the same thing happened to her in Fort Bend County.

"When I got to the end, I just so happened to glance at the screen, and I saw Ted Cruz was selected as my senator," Hosea said.

It's popped up across Texas often enough that the secretary of state put up a statewide advisory Monday to every Texas election advisor.

The secretary of state calls this operator error.
SNIP
A spokesperson with the Texas secretary of state's office says a vendor should handle the problems.

The state has not asked vendors to do that.

Texas voting machines changing some straight-party selections
https://abc13.com/4556377/

By Ted Oberg
Thursday, October 25, 2018
HOUSTON, Texas (KTRK) -- Voters are reporting odd problems on both the Republican and Democratic side of straight-party voting in Texas.

Mickey Blake was one of the voters in those early voting lines in Houston earlier this week.

"I hit straight Democratic ticket," Blake said.

She says she expected all Democrats to come up on her screen, especially Rep. Beto O'Rourke, but when she got to the last screen to review her choices, she noticed a problem.

"It's all Democratic except for Ted Cruz was checked," Blake said.

So she backed up and did it again. And again.

"I tried it a third time and the same thing happened," she said.

The same thing happened to Cordell Hosea in Fort Bend County.

"When I got to the end, I just so happened that I glanced at the screen, I saw Ted Cruz was selected as my senator," Hosea said.
SNIP

[TexasTowelie]

2. That was certainly a problem.

However, since this was special election with only two choices there wasn't any straight party option on the ballot. It also shouldn't have any effect on the primaries since everyone is voting in either in the GOP or Democratic primary and there will be no straight party option.

However, what you indicated is definitely a problem in the general election. I've never selected the straight party option and I go down the ballot marking each race. Unfortunately, there are some races in Texas where the choices are GOP and either Independent, Green or Libertarian with no Democrats on the ballot. When presented with those choices, I want to convey a protest vote and that I don't support the GOP. In my 36 years of voting, none of those protest votes ever resulted in a victory for the third party option, but at least I didn't vote Republican.

[diva77]

3. I hope people will shower the SOS with letters imploring him/her to fix the problem.

Actually, I hope they demand to have hand marked paper ballots.

It's possible there were undetected problems with the machines for this election as well - despite there being only 2 choices on the ballot. One can never tell with those machines.

[marble falls]

4. That's the story here in Burnet County, we get a lot of local elections with only GOP ...

candidates and even occasional GOPer vs Green, but the local Democratic Party has trouble finding candidates for even 10% of the open slots. We have elected an occasional Democrat for Judge. But even then they're connected to local prominent families who are otherwise solidly GOP.

[TexasTowelie]

5. When I was living in Brenham (Washington County)

there were no Democrats on the ballot for any of the county races and I think that there wasn't a candidate for the state representative race (Lois Kolkhorst, Republican toadie won). Most of the races in Wharton County at least had a Democratic opponent.

I preferred to show my support or disapproval of the candidates for each race. Marking the straight ballot option removed the opportunity to vote against a Republican when there was no Democratic alternative.

[marble falls]

6. I really think there ought to be a "none of the above" option on the ballot.