Wednesday, March 31, 2021

'Election Integrity' extends to Judge Hidalgo, too

Not just the Republicans at the Lege, mind you.



We're not speaking of voter suppression today, but actual election integrity, a problem that many people think the new voting machines purchased by the Harris County commissioners have solved.  I don't think so, Judge Lina Hidalgo.


What were those concerns again?


That's a thirteen-count thread -- here's the unroll -- and it's pretty alarming.  Note in the replies there the experts who express misgivings, and the local activist who lobbied Commissioners Court in vain prior to the county's $54 million buy.  I asked Brad Friedman of BradBlog to weigh in; he is, to my experience, one of the nation's pre-eminent experts in the field of what we used to call black box voting, a topic he's covered -- and one detailed by many others -- for 20 years.


Uh oh. What about local authority Dan Wallach, of Rice University?  He's expressed no concerns that I can find about the Hart InterCivic Verity Duo, this new tech from the same vendor which supplied our old e-Slates with the scrolling wheel.  Wallach testified last week (.pdf) before the Texas Senate's State Affairs committee about election security; he writes at Medium, his Twitter page contains more geeks talking voting tech, and he's been published frequently, including by Zach Despart of the Houston Chronicle in October of last year about this topic.

My interpretation of his recent remarks is: "these latest machines are better than what Harris County had before, but that's not saying much". (Professor Wallach, if you read this and I have you mistaken, please feel free to correct me.)

Of course if Judge Hidalgo, or Elections Aministrator Isabel Longoria, or whoever monitors the Twitter accounts of Harris Votes or Hart InterCivic had wanted to respond to my concerns, they could have done so already.  Maybe they're all too busy to do so.  Maybe they have their Twitter notifications turned off.  Maybe I'm just a lowly blogger who isn't worthy of a response.  Maybe they didn't know about these issues (that doesn't fly for Hart); maybe they just don't give a shit.  We don't know, because nobody has said anything.

Somehow I expected more from a public servant whom I have voted for, donated to, and praised on these pages as a "rising star in the Democratic Party".

At any rate, if you want to take a look at how the new voting machines work, Judge Hidalgo and John Coby have a preview.


As for me, I'm voting by mail.  With an actual hand-marked paper ballot.
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Tuesday, March 30, 2021

Taco Tuesday Wrangle from Far Left Texas

Here in H-Town, we'll also be celebrating World Taco Day tomorrow.


Efforting today to get everything I can into two posts; this early edition and another later today tomorrow morning.  *heavy sigh*  Opening with some of the less-than-usual subjects to clear out my Texas Republicans Behaving Badly file.



This toon commemorates the bastardizing of Toby Keith's "Beer for my Horses" by Rep. Chip Roy, who tried to normalize lynching as an excuse for the way AAPI Americans have been treated since the pandemic began ... a story about two weeks old.  Roy has had almost as much trouble with 'old sayings in Texas' as did GW Bush.  Stupid is as stupid does.


If you haven't read this yet, please do so.

About a week after the March 10th order went into effect, I was working a closing shift with two other young women. A man came in with a mask on but pulled it down to order. My 18-year-old coworker asked him nicely to keep his mask up. He pulled the mask down farther, and she asked him again. He went off the rails: "I am a 40-year-old man, I can scratch my nose if I want to. Give me your manager's phone number. I don't think he's going to be impressed with your attitude. I was going to give a tip to you and your friends, but your attitude just lost it." And on and on until he finally left.

My co-workers and I were shaken. If we had asked him to leave, he might have gotten more agitated. If my other co-worker or I had stepped in, he might have seen it as a threat and the situation might have escalated. We had heard about violent, even fatal attacks on customer service workers who were trying to enforce mask policies. Despite all the signage on our doors and our manager's policy to not serve those without masks, we still had to sweetly listen while this man berated a young woman less than half his age who is working to pay her way through college. We felt completely helpless.

While leaving the decision up to businesses and "individuals" sounds like a very Texan way to handle a global health crisis, it's not protecting Texans.

Thanks again, Greg Abbott.

Here's a few legislative updates to yesterday posted in non-chronological order.


HB17 is a bad bill, according to Luke Metzger at Environment Texas, who says it makes the state less secure from electrical blackouts, like what happened with Winter Storm Uri.  Metzger also has a list of the best and worst bills his organization is supporting. (More eco-news in the next Wrangle.)


There's my segue to the aggregation of BLM, social justice, and 'cops behaving badly' stories.  This rally, below, was yesterday.


Darius Tarver.  Israel Iglesias.  Botham Jean.  Javier Ambler.  And Mike Ramos.  Say their names.  As you watch the trial of Derek Chauvin this week, keep in mind that these are not isolated cases.  Police killing POC for minor offenses, or no offense at all -- and not killing extremist white men who've slain multiple people, often POC, with guns -- is an American epidemic.  It will require the full urgency of white men and women to make it stop.

Environmental news and a few of the more uplifting stories, including what I intend to be a regular feature, art and the arts, will be in this afternoon/evening tomorrow's Wrangle.  Closing here with some Texans we say goodbye to.


And the passing of Don Bankston, husband of "Juanita Jean", also an associate judge and the former Fort Bend County Democratic party chairman, is a loss that reverberates throughout southeast Texas politics.  My most sincere condolences to Susan, their sons, and her extended family.
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