RandySF
RandySF's JournalMidland County officials just found missing ballot box. It may change result of a $569 million bond.
A proposal for a $569 million bond to build two new high school buildings in Midland failed by 25 votes in the November election, a margin slim enough it set off calls for a recount.
The ballots were recounted manually, and to the delight of Midland ISD officials, the results flipped and the proposal passed by a margin of 11 votes.
But last week, a Midland elections staffer found a box on the bottom of a shelf in the office containing 836 ballots that weren't tallied in the recount. Those votes threaten to again reverse the election results, which school officials are counting on to generate hundreds of millions of dollars for school construction.
The elections office obtained a court order to open the ballot box on Monday morning, when staffers began to count up the missing votes.
The first and unofficial vote tally on Nov. 5, which used the electronic ballots, took the missing ballots into account. The paper ballots are a physical copy of how constituents voted on the electronic system. The paper ballots came into play during the manual recount, which was missing the more than 800 ballots, making the recount number inaccurate.
https://www.texastribune.org/2019/12/16/missing-midland-texas-ballot-box-could-throw-bond-election-question/
Gabbard says she needs to raise 1 million rubles by year-end 'to stay competitive'
Rep. Tulsi Gabbard (D-Hawaii) said she needs to raise $1 million by the end of the year for her presidential campaign to remain competitive.
“We need to raise $1M by December 31st in order to stay competitive and continue our momentum. Let’s put our grassroots msg front and center in the most competitive early state media markets,” she tweeted Monday evening.
Gabbard has consistently polled in the lower or middle tiers in national and early state surveys, but pressure on her campaign was ramped up after she narrowly failed to qualify for Thursday’s primary debate, which she said she would have skipped regardless.
The Gabbard campaign did not immediately respond to a request for comment from The Hill regarding how much she’s raised since making the plea. A graphic accompanying the request showed the Hawaii Democrat has already raised more than $480,000 of the $1 million.
The tweet asking for donations comes as a top tier of former Vice President Joe Biden, Sens. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) and Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) and South Bend, Ind., Mayor Pete Buttigieg solidifies in the first four nominating states, leaving other candidates hoping for a finish somewhere in the top five.
https://thehill.com/homenews/campaign/474904-gabbard-says-needs-to-raise-1-million-by-year-end-to-stay-competitive
ME-SEN: Collins says she plans to reveal reelection plans 'this week'
en. Susan Collins (R-Maine) will announce this week whether she will run for reelection next year.
“This week, yes,” she confirmed in an interview with Politico Tuesday. “This will be the end of fall, which is what I said.”
Collins, a centrist four-term senator who remains a household name in Maine, had set a self-imposed deadline of announcing her 2020 plans by the end of autumn, which technically ends on Saturday.
"Senator Collins does expect to announce her decision on whether or not to run for re-election this week," a spokesperson from her campaign confirmed to The Hill.
Maine’s Senate race next year is expected to be one of the most competitive in the nation as Democrats seek to unseat Collins in a state that will also be hotly contested at the presidential level.
https://thehill.com/homenews/campaign/474936-susan-collins-says-she-plans-to-reveal-re-election-plans-this-week
DCCC raises more than $9M in November
The Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee (DCCC), the body charged with electing Democrats to the House, raised more than $9 million last month.
The haul, which has not previously been reported, exceeded the roughly $7 million the DCCC raised in November 2017, making last month its best off-year November for fundraising in the group’s history.
The DCCC hauled in more than $5 million in grassroots contributions, including donations online, through the mail and over the phone. The average online donation this November was $17.
“Grassroots donors know what’s at stake in this election, and they are invested in House Democrats’ work to bring down the costs of health care and uphold the rule of law,” DCCC Chairwoman Rep. Cheri Bustos (D-Ill.) said in a statement to The Hill.
https://thehill.com/homenews/campaign/474949-dccc-raises-more-than-9m-in-october
Were Christopher Steele and Ivanka Trump a Thing?
The most titillating detail in the IG report, it turns out, is that Christopher Steele, the erstwhile British super-spy and the author of the “dossier” that bears his name, had a “personal” relationship with a member of the Trump family. Julia Macfarlane at ABC News confirmed that said family member was—mirabile dictu—the president’s favorite daughter:
“[D]ining together in New York at a restaurant just blocks from Trump Tower” sounds suspiciously like “going out on a date.”
Parkhomenko might be right to still not believe this rumor—or rumour, I suppose—because it’s probably all smoke and no fire (although the smoke is sultry and the fire is hot). Most likely, Steele, who in 2008 was about to launch his own business in the private sector, was working a deep-pocketed potential client and nothing more.
On the other hand…I mean, it’s certainly possible. Consider: At the time, Steele’s life was in flux. He was 44 years old, in what would be his last year at MI6. His wife Laura, with whom he had two children, was terminally ill. A year later he was a widower, and had left the spy game to form his own company, Orbis. Would he have enjoyed the flirtations of a young American beauty (the above photo is from 2009, before Ivanka went Kremlin Barbie and began speaking like post-Ray of Light Madonna) at such a tumultuous time in his life? Put it this way: he’d have rather dined with her than, say, Eric.
https://gregolear.substack.com/p/be-steele-my-beating-heart?token=eyJ1c2VyX2lkIjoxMTM1MDIsInBvc3RfaWQiOjE5NjczOSwiXyI6InIzaVRLIiwiaWF0IjoxNTc2NTkzMTI0LCJleHAiOjE1NzY1OTY3MjQsImlzcyI6InB1Yi0yMDY5NSIsInN1YiI6InBvc3QtcmVhY3Rpb24ifQ.mq-NMBOg1jpZiBsQAuAahW13hc166gwkehBaoGEXNzs
Gang Of Four - Man In Uniform
NJ-02: Van Drew draws Democratic challenger amid plans to switch parties
Rep. Jefferson Van Drew (N.J.) has drawn his first Democratic challenger since moving over the weekend to switch political parties and become a Republican.
Brigid Harrison, a political science professor at Montclair State University, announced on Monday that she would run to unseat Van Drew from his southern New Jersey congressional district in 2020 after he told aides that he planned to become a Republican following a White House meeting with President Trump.
“Jeff Van Drew made a choice,” Harrison said in a statement sent to reporters. “He has repeatedly ignored the voices of our community and has instead sold his soul, cutting backroom deals with the White House.”
“Whether you are a Democrat, Republican, or Independent, the last thing the people of the 2nd Congressional District need or want is to elect a blind pawn for Donald Trump.”
https://thehill.com/homenews/campaign/474744-van-drew-draws-democratic-challenger-amid-plans-to-switch-parties
Wisconsin Democrats vow to register voters who may be purged
MADISON, Wis. (AP) — Democrats in the key swing state of Wisconsin vowed Monday to redouble efforts to ensure that any voters whose registrations have been nullified by a judge’s recent ruling will be able to register again before the 2020 presidential election.
Legal appeals could delay for months enforcement of the judge’s order to purge more than 200,000 voters who didn’t respond within 30 days to letters seeking confirmation of their addresses. The case is expected to go all the way to the Wisconsin Supreme Court, which is controlled 5-2 by conservatives.
The Wisconsin Democratic Party will use the state’s open records law to obtain the names of everyone who would be purged and “systematically” contact those most likely to be Democrats so they can re-register, said state party chairman Ben Wikler. Voters do not register by political party in Wisconsin.
“This is an organizing challenge, not a crisis,” Wikler said. He said purging the voters “just adds to our to-do list. It’s a reason to work, not to freak out.”
Even if the number of voters who didn’t move but are tossed from the rolls is small, Democrats fear the impact on the election could be huge. President Donald Trump carried the state by fewer than 23,000 votes in 2016.
“I won the race for governor by less than 30,000 votes,” Democratic Gov. Tony Evers tweeted on Friday. “This move pushed by Republicans to remove 200,000 Wisconsinites from the voter rolls is just another attempt at overriding the will of the people and stifling the democratic process.”
Democratic Milwaukee Mayor Tom Barrett said Republicans were trying to “rig” the vote.
https://apnews.com/eeeefa9718f9ff41d7a87c4a3dc4190f
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