Voter ID: U.S. District Judge Nelva Gonzales Ramos denied the state and federal government’s request to postpone again next week’s Voter ID trial. The hearing to determine whether the 2011 Voter ID law was passed with discriminatory intent will begin on Tuesday.

CD21: Via Twitter, Air Force veteran and 2016 Democratic candidate Thomas Wakely announced he would again challenge U.S. Rep. Lamar Smith (R-San Antonio). We previously reported that he filed a new statement of candidacy indicating his likely challenge. Wakely received 36% of the vote in 2016.

Dallas: City officials ultimately rejected the application of former council member Sandra Crenshaw for P3 on the city council, leaving incumbent Casey Thomas and educator and two-time council candidate Joe Tave vying for the seat.

Frisco: Early voting will begin March 8 for the March 25 runoff election between former council member and HD33 candidate John Keating and business consultant Brandon Burden. Keating narrowly missed winning the nine-way special election outright, receiving 45% of the vote. Burden finished second with 18% of the vote. Turnout for the special election was just south of 5% of more than 88K registered voters.

Hays Co.: The Austin American-Statesman reported that 1,816 ballots cast early in the November general election went uncounted due to “preventable human error.” Election staff overlooked a device akin to a memory card that contained the votes after the voting machine was pulled from service during early voting. The lost votes, when added to the county’s totals, did not change the outcome of any race except for a sparsely populated MUD election in which two people voted. Those two voters challenged the election results, which were tossed by a judge prior to the uncounted ballots being discovered, and the flap led to the county’s investigation of its voting equipment.

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