TX-22 Poll shows what's his name in trouble.

[nlm]

Does anybody know what will happen when a notable % of TX-22 doesn't spell Sekula Gibbs correctly in their write in vote? Will the board of elections be measuring voter intent or no?

[Sam Spade]

About the only relevant law I've found is here:

You must be logged in to read this quote.

It's a fairly open standard, but as I recall the Secretary of State has the last word.

In past elections, I'll see if I can give an example of how it's been interpreted interpreted:

Shirely Sekola-Gibs (would pass muster)
Surely Sikole-Gipps (questionable, would probably pass, but it would be close)
Snidely Whiplash (no good)

The Secretary of State has pretty much carte blanche to count what he wants to.  I would expect vote challenges by the political parties if we get down to this point.

[agcatter]

What will happen?  The Dems will go to court and challenge every vote that the hyphen was left out of.  So much for the Florida Democratic battle cry - Count every vote!

[Sam Spade]

What will happen?  The Dems will go to court and challenge every vote that the hyphen was left out of.  So much for the Florida Democratic battle cry - Count every vote!

I doubt that would happen.  The statute under subsection (d) is simply too open-ended and vague with its language to challenge even a couple of mistakes.  The ones that would be challenged are like the middle one I listed above (questionable).

Also, the Florida Supremes are quite different than the Texas Supremes.  Let me count the ways.

[agcatter]

Sam, you are exactly right.  The Texas and Florida Supreme Courts couldn't be more polar opposites.

[M]

All Sekula-Gibbs is competent poll workers with a concise message: "write her in! Ballot item 4!"

[jimrtex]

Do you have to spell that woman's name correctly to have your vote counted? Would Shelly Gibbs be ok? I'm surprised she didn't just use that as her name for the campaign, not only for spelling issues, but it also sounds a lot less exotic.

Texas law says that a vote is valid if the voter's intent is "clearly ascertainable."   It gives some specific examples such as circling a name, or striking out all but one name as being valid.  The voting devices in most of the district do not actually use handwriting, so it would be more of a case of voter's spelling correctly.

In Texas, write-in votes are not really free-form, fill in the blank.  You have to file as a write-in candidate, and it is required that votes for the filed candidates be counted.  A list of write-in candidates is posted in the voting booths.  It would take a Democrat to argue that "Shelly Gibbs" does not represent clearly ascertainable intent to vote for the write-in candidate Shelley Sekula-Gibbs.

The Secretary of State has ruled that the counties may not pre-determine acceptable spellings, but that once a particular spelling is accepted, it may be automatically counted for all votes.  Galveston County uses optical readers for election day voting.   They will have to project the ballots on a screen, and then determine whether each vote is valid.

Shelley Sekula is a MD, and she has always used Sekula in her professional life.  When she first ran for city council in Houston, it was as Shelley Sekula-Rodriguez.  Sylvan Rodriguez, her husband, was a local TV anchor in Houston before he died.  His son from his former marriage were outspokenly bitter about her use of Rodriguez's name.   She married Robert Gibbs in 2002, and ran for re-election as Sekula-Gibbs.

[jimrtex]

You guys ever heard of preprinted stickers?

They're illegal in Texas.

[jimrtex]

But I thought the Texas gerrymander meant that DeLay sacrificed his seat, making it less Republican, so that it's now like 55% Republican or something? If that is true it doesn't really seem impossible for Lampson to retain it.

Frost geographical atrocity.  TX-22 is the green district in the southwest with a finger poking into Harris County to pick up Republican voters.



Frost geographical atrocity, with race-based lines removed after 1997 Supreme Court ruling in Bush v Vera, retains partisan finger in TX-22.



The legislative redistricting in 2003 was mainly to unpack Republican voters.

[jimrtex]

It's a fairly open standard, but as I recall the Secretary of State has the last word.

In past elections, I'll see if I can give an example of how it's been interpreted interpreted:

Shirely Sekola-Gibs (would pass muster)
Surely Sikole-Gipps (questionable, would probably pass, but it would be close)
Snidely Whiplash (no good)

The Secretary of State has pretty much carte blanche to count what he wants to.  I would expect vote challenges by the political parties if we get down to this point.

The votes will be counted in the 4 counties.  The Secretary of State can give advice to the counties - and has said that counties may not predetermine valid spellings.  But once they decide on a spelling, it can be used for all ballots that are electronically entered (not hand-written).  The Governor is responsible for the statewide canvass, but it will be conducted by the SoS.  But the statewide canvass is pretty much just totalling votes reported from the county.

Ultimately the House of Representatives has authority over election contests of its members.

[jimrtex]

What will happen?  The Dems will go to court and challenge every vote that the hyphen was left out of.  So much for the Florida Democratic battle cry - Count every vote!

The voting machines weren't programmed with hyphens.

[jimrtex]

Edited to reflect voting through Monday.

Early voting (vs. 2002)

Continues to way up and the counties are only partially in TX-22.

Fort Bend +57% (only 69% of county is in TX-22).
Galveston +44% (only 21% of county is in TX-22)
Harris +20% (only 9% in TX-22).

Compare to other large counties where it is flat or down (except Bexar where the congressional races are interesting)

Dallas +9%
Tarrant -3%
Bexar +14%
Travis -16%

Suburban counties have moderate increases, but may actually be down when population growth is factored in.

Collin +24%
Denton +12%
Montgomery +6%
Williamson +11%

Border counties are down, without Tony Sanchez on the ballot.  Nueces has a couple of interesting Texas House races.

El Paso -21%
Hidalgo -35%
Nueces +28%

[Deano963]

Read no further.

Nonetheless I'm not suprised, but at the end of the day, all Lampson needs is for more people to vote for him than those who will bother to write in S-H-E-L-L-E-Y S-E-K-U-L-A-G-I-B-B-S
[/quote]

Yeh - and hit ENTER after every single letter. This is nothing to worry about.

[jimrtex]

Nonetheless I'm not suprised, but at the end of the day, all Lampson needs is for more people to vote for him than those who will bother to write in S-H-E-L-L-E-Y S-E-K-U-L-A-G-I-B-B-S

Yeh - and hit ENTER after every single letter. This is nothing to worry about.

Hitting enter is not a problem after scrolling through the letters.

When you sign in, you are given a 4-digit code on a slip of a paper.  You have to enter that number in the same way (scrolling through the 10 digits) as you do for a write-in.  If you can't do that, you don't vote.

You also have to press enter after scrolling through each race to select your candidate.

If you don't hit enter, the letter doesn't register, and you are just scrolling through the letters stuck on the first letter.

[Nym90]

What will happen?  The Dems will go to court and challenge every vote that the hyphen was left out of.  So much for the Florida Democratic battle cry - Count every vote!

The voting machines weren't programmed with hyphens.

Not to mention that of course the Republicans who opposed counting the votes in Florida will support counting every misspelling for Sekula-Gibbs in this race.

Both parties will spin those types of things for political advantage. It doesn't justify it of course, it's equally despicable on both sides, but certainly both do it just as well and just as much.

[Sam Spade]

What will happen?  The Dems will go to court and challenge every vote that the hyphen was left out of.  So much for the Florida Democratic battle cry - Count every vote!

The voting machines weren't programmed with hyphens.

Not to mention that of course the Republicans who opposed counting the votes in Florida will support counting every misspelling for Sekula-Gibbs in this race.

Both parties will spin those types of things for political advantage. It doesn't justify it of course, it's equally despicable on both sides, but certainly both do it just as well and just as much.

On this one you're wrong, Nym.  Historically, with write-in candidates in Texas, neither party has complained about misspellings when the "intent of the voter" can be clearly defined.  The standard is generous and has always been interpreted so by the local elections boards (at least when I was down there). 

Both campaigns, prior to the election, have said publicly they would support this generous standard.  If the race is extremely close, I am sure that there will some complaints about extreme misspellings, but other than that, neither side is going to have a hissy fit if someone can't spell properly.

There are plenty of election issues in this country that turn into partisan pissing contests.  This is not one of them right now, and I hope it doesn't turn into such.

[Rob]

I'd be more detailed, but I've lost my Atlas of American Politics log-in.

LOL

[Alcon]

I'd be more detailed, but I've lost my Atlas of American Politics log-in.

LOL

OK.

I'd be more detailed, but I've lost Rob's Atlas of American Politics log-in.

Happy?

[Nym90]

What will happen?  The Dems will go to court and challenge every vote that the hyphen was left out of.  So much for the Florida Democratic battle cry - Count every vote!

The voting machines weren't programmed with hyphens.

Not to mention that of course the Republicans who opposed counting the votes in Florida will support counting every misspelling for Sekula-Gibbs in this race.

Both parties will spin those types of things for political advantage. It doesn't justify it of course, it's equally despicable on both sides, but certainly both do it just as well and just as much.

On this one you're wrong, Nym.  Historically, with write-in candidates in Texas, neither party has complained about misspellings when the "intent of the voter" can be clearly defined.  The standard is generous and has always been interpreted so by the local elections boards (at least when I was down there). 

Both campaigns, prior to the election, have said publicly they would support this generous standard.  If the race is extremely close, I am sure that there will some complaints about extreme misspellings, but other than that, neither side is going to have a hissy fit if someone can't spell properly.

There are plenty of election issues in this country that turn into partisan pissing contests.  This is not one of them right now, and I hope it doesn't turn into such.

Well it was actually agcatter that was wrong then, and I'm glad of that, I would strongly support allowing votes for Sekula-Gibbs if the intent of the voter can be divined. But supporting allowing those votes but also supporting the disallowal of a hanging chad that was punched on 3 of 4 corners for Gore in 2000 would be hypocritical, since again, the intent of the voter should be the key issue in my opinion when it can be clearly divined.

[jimrtex]

On this one you're wrong, Nym.  Historically, with write-in candidates in Texas, neither party has complained about misspellings when the "intent of the voter" can be clearly defined.  The standard is generous and has always been interpreted so by the local elections boards (at least when I was down there). 

Both campaigns, prior to the election, have said publicly they would support this generous standard.  If the race is extremely close, I am sure that there will some complaints about extreme misspellings, but other than that, neither side is going to have a hissy fit if someone can't spell properly.

There are plenty of election issues in this country that turn into partisan pissing contests.  This is not one of them right now, and I hope it doesn't turn into such.

The Democratic Party has spent $50,000 on a mailout flyer supporting one of the other write-in candidates.  I'm quite sure that they have their vote suppression teams ready.

[jimrtex]

Early voting (through Thursday) vs. 2002

Fort Bend +49%
Galveston +23%
Harris +13%

Other Large Counties:

Dallas +7%
Tarrant -1%
Bexar +6%
Travis -10%

Other Suburban Counties:

Collin +24%
Denton +18%
Montgomery +9%
Williamson +10%

South Texas/Border:

El Paso -22%
Hidalgo -32%
Nueces +22%

[I spent the winter writing songs about getting better]

The Democratic Party has spent $50,000 on a mailout flyer supporting one of the other write-in candidates.

That's brilliant and awesome! And a great payback to the Republicans supporting Nader and that Green moron in PA.

Reminds me of how the DFL recently has been getting party activists to run in close races on third party tickets with conservative sounding names