Mississippi Officials Moved Three Times More Polling Places Than Reported for 65,000 Voters

Since May, local officials in Mississippi have changed polling-place locations for at least 55 precincts—more than triple the 17 precinct changes that Mississippi Secretary of State Michael Watson announced last week.

The changes mean that about 65,000 Mississippi voters will vote in a different location on Election Day than where they would have cast their ballot during the March party primaries just this past spring. The changes affect some voters who have voted in the same location for more than a decade.

It is up to local county officials, who are in charge of deciding precinct locations, to notify the secretary of state’s office of precinct changes. A full list of changes the Mississippi Free Press identified is included at the end of this article.

“We months ago started telling our precincts, our circuit clerks, to make sure if you think there’s going to be a change to let us know in advance,” Watson said during an Oct. 27 press conference, in which he said he was only aware of the 17 precinct changes posted at sos.ms.gov/vote.

The Mississippi Free Press found discrepancies between the numbers the secretary of state officially released on Oct. 27 and reports from voters who said their precincts had changed but were not on Watson’s list. MFP reported on the list last week, which cited changes in only a dozen counties.



https://www.mississippifreepress.org/6577/mississippi-officials-moved-three-times-more-polling-places-than-reported-for-65000-voters/

'It's popular now to go vote': Young Texans are voting in record numbers

The youth turnout reflects a Democrat-driven registration campaign that has added nearly 1.9 million new Texas voters to the rolls over the past four years. In 2016, about 15.1 million people were registered to vote; this year, it’s nearly 17 million.

“That is not going to be dominated by older white people,” said Renée Cross, senior director of the Hobby School of Public Affairs at the University of Houston. “Those numbers are going to be dominated by younger folks who tend to be people of color.”

Though no young Republicans were on hand Friday afternoon at Texas State, they’re plenty motivated, too.

Chase Nicholson, the 21-year-old co-president of the Southern Methodist University chapter of the College Republicans, voted by mail this year in her home state of Florida — for Trump.

She had varied reasons for preferring Trump, she said. She wanted to deliver a rebuke to “cancel culture,” the social media-driven practice of denouncing those who do or say things deemed objectionable.

She said she has a firm belief in small government and hoped that reviving the economy quickly under Trump would help those who lost their jobs in the coronavirus lockdowns.


https://www.houstonchronicle.com/us-world/article/Texas-surpasses-2016-voter-turnout-with-more-than-15691525.php

Jon Ralston's latest Nevada Early Voting Blog - 10/31/20 - 10:00 p.m.

I am going to assume for the sake of the initial model that Washoe is very close – the last two cycles indicate it is highly unlikely that either side wins by a lot, so let’s say it is very close. So the question becomes for Trump whether he can win by enough in the rurals to offset Biden’s advantage in Clark.

Here's where the math gets very difficult for him.

If Clark (at only 75 percent turnout) has 900,000 voters, Biden has to figure to win it by at least 10 points – it is hard to believe he would do worse than Clinton’s 11-point win in Clark. That’s 90,000 votes. (I think Clark turnout will be higher.)

So how does Trump get to 90,000 in the rurals? Remember he won by 40 points in 2016 and his margin was 58,000 votes. There are now about 40,000 more voters on the rolls, and I still think he tops out at about 80,000, so game over. But could he get to 90,000?

Here’s how hard that is:

If rural turnout is 80 percent, Trump would need to win the rurals by 50 points. Forty was unlikely in 2016; 50 seems crazy in 2020.

If rural turnout got to 85 percent, which I would say is not impossible, Trump would still need to win by more than 45 points. (Right now, GOP ballots are at 55 percent and Democrats at 22 percent.)

Of course, if you think Biden is not going to win Clark by 10, the math changes – 9 points at minimum Clark turnout would be 81,000 votes in Clark. But it also changes the other way if Clark gets to 950,000 turnout and Biden wins by 10; then Trump would need 85 percent turnout in the rurals and a 50-point win.

So you can do all the rejiggering you want with the numbers, but unless Trump can win Washoe by 5 points or so – and no one I know thinks that is likely (indeed they think it’s more likely that Biden wins there by 5) – there is almost no reasonable scenario in which the president can offset Biden’s Clark margin.

Sure, maybe Clark will collapse for Biden or the rurals will have 90 percent turnout. In either of those scenarios, Trump would probably win. But neither seem very likely.

I want to see a little more data before I say for sure, but the math is the math.

I’ll do a deeper dive and look at down-ballot races Sunday.



https://thenevadaindependent.com/article/the-early-voting-blog-3

Tweet of 2020

Texas Republicans push to invalidate 127,000 ballots

For 18 days of early voting, Harris County residents waited in line, had their identities verified by poll workers, and cast their votes in a presidential election that has seen record-breaking early turnout.

But for the nearly 127,000 people who did so at drive-thru polling places instead of in traditional indoor sites, many are now watching with fear as a wealthy conservative activist, a Republican state representative and two GOP candidates aim to throw out their ballots at the last minute. In the state’s most populous — and largely Democratic — county, drive-thru voters are left anxiously awaiting court decisions before Election Day on Tuesday that could force them to go back to the polls. Likely many more are unaware of their votes' potential demise.

The Republican legal effort could jeopardize 10% of the in-person early votes that were cast at 10 drive-thru polling places throughout the county — a vote count higher than the entire early vote total in Nueces County, home of Corpus Christi and the state's 16th most populous county.

Two lawsuits by the group of plaintiffs have been filed in recent days after a similar challenge was already rejected by the all-Republican Texas Supreme Court.





https://www.texastribune.org/2020/10/31/harris-county-drive-thru-votes/

Extra Bonus Tweet of the Day

Bonus Tweet of the Day

Democrats Grow More Anxious About Pennsylvania

“Joe Biden on Saturday prepared to mount a last-minute, two-day blitz of Pennsylvania, amid concern among some local Democrats about a potential late shift that would threaten his narrow advantage there and mirror President Trump’s 2016 comeback,” the Washington Post reports.

“Most Democrats still believe Biden will capture Pennsylvania, and he maintains a modest polling lead there, but their confidence has eroded in recent weeks with emerging signs of a tightening contest in the state, according to elected officials, strategists and party activists. Both sides believe the outcome in Pennsylvania will be crucial in determining who wins the White House.




https://politicalwire.com/2020/10/31/democrats-grow-more-anxious-about-pennsylvania/