The Secretary of State’s office confirmed it would report presidential primary votes at the Senate district level on Election night as it has in past presidential primaries. This is important, because a majority of the delegates a Democratic presidential candidate “wins” is based on results in each of the state’s 31 districts.
Earlier today (Wednesday), the Texas Democratic Party said it had been advised that the new election results reporting system would not be able to allocate presidential primary votes by Senate district on Election night.
“Texans deserve to know who won their election,” said a tweet posted to the party’s official Twitter account. “If, in fact, the [Secretary of State] refuses to report all of the election results, including presidential preference by senate district, it is a violation of the public trust and fails Texans.”
The state party allocates more than half of its delegates based on Senate district performances, which would have meant that candidates’ final delegate counts would not have been known for potentially several days after the primary election. Democratic caucus results from Iowa were delayed by two days because of issues connected with a new application designed to tabulate votes from more than 1,600 caucus sites.
A spokesperson for the Secretary of State said the allegations made by the Democratic Party were “categorically false,” reported the Texas Tribune’s Alexa Ura.
Texas is one of 16 states with presidential primaries on March 3, known nationally as Super Tuesday, and the Democratic Party will ultimately send 261 delegates to the Democratic National Convention. Of those, 149 delegates are allocated proportionally among each of the state’s 31 Senate districts. The number of delegates per district varies from two to 10 based on the level of support Hillary Clinton received from that district in 2016 and Lupe Valdez in 2018. Another 79 delegates are allocated proportionately based on the statewide vote. A candidate needs at least 15% of the vote in a Senate district or statewide to receive delegates. Another 33 delegates are unpledged and can vote for any candidate regardless of the primary vote. These include 20 Democratic National Committee members and 13 members of Congress.
Voter Guides: The League of Women Voters has published its nonpartisan Texas Primary Voter Guide, which can be found at vote411.org. It is available in English and Spanish. Local candidate information is also available in many communities in Texas.
Oaths of Office: Reps.-elect Lorraine Birabil (D-Dallas), Anna Eastman (D-Houston) and Gary Gates (R-Rosenberg) will be sworn into office on Tuesday, one week before early voting begins. Each faces a contested primary for nomination for a full term.
HD65: Gov. Greg Abbott (R) endorsed Kronda Thimesch for the Republican nomination to challenge Rep. Michelle Beckley (D-Carrollton).
HD92 open: The Fort Worth Star-Telegram endorsed former Bedford Mayor Jim Griffin for the Republican nomination to succeed the retiring Rep. Jonathan Stickland (R-Bedford).
HD97: Sen. Beverly Powell (D-Burleson) endorsed Elizabeth Beck for the Democratic nomination to challenge Rep. Craig Goldman (R-Fort Worth). Powell also endorsed Lydia Bean in HD93 and Joe Drago in HD96, neither of whom have primary opponents.
HD106: Primary challenger James Trombley out-raised Rep. Jared Patterson (R-Frisco), $51K to $41K, during the first 23 days of 2020, according to a late-filed report. Flower Mound retiree Darlene Pendery contributed $50K, bringing her total contributions to Trombley to $75K, which is 77% of his total contributions for the cycle.
Meanwhile, the Dallas Morning News endorsed Patterson for the Republican nomination.
©2020 Texas Election Source LLC
