House races ... +3 for Republicans

Ok, looks like Democratic incumbent Chet Edwards (TX 17) may pull it out against the Republican challenger Arlene Wohlgemuth. It’s still close, but he has a decent lead and there aren’t many precincts left to report.

Sessions beat Frost (TX 32). A 26-year veteran falls. So will Stenholm (TX 19). In my (new) home district (TX 31), Carter stomped Porter. Net pickup of 3 seats in the house for Republicans, unless Edwards loses ground.

All the best to the rest of the nation, from Central Texas. And to Alan and Michele, thanks for letting me participate. It was a blast!

Martin Frost (D-TX32) Concedes

Frost is frosted out by Pete Sessions in the Texas 32nd (mostly Dallas). The first victim of Tom Delay’s gerrymandering falls, a 26 year veteran of the House against an incumbent freshman from Ft. Worth.

Edwards/Wohlgemuth - TX 17

It’s a street fight. This one has gone back and forth 5 times in the last 2 hours by my count.

Texas 32nd district race: Frost concedes

Republican Pete Sessions beat Democrat Martin Frost in the redrawn 32nd Congressional District. This is a big win for Texas Republicans as Frost was one of the targets of the congressional redistricting.

Edwards pulls ahead in the TX 17th.

10% reporting, Chet has pulled ahead of Arlene Wohlgemuth, 52% 48%, a 4,000 vote lead. This will be a big upset considering the gerrymandered action this past summer.

Texas called for Bush

Texas is now called for Bush with 2.16% precincts reporting. Bush: 62%, 1,343,995 votes. Kerry: 37%, 802,206 votes.

House Races

Ok, for my friends around the country, probably interested in the Congressional races. If no one’s done it yet, I’m calling Texas for Bush.

TX 17. Wohlgemuth (Rep) has a significant lead over Chet Edwards (Dem). This will be amazing, Chet’s been in since way back in the early 80s after taking the reins from Marvin Leath. Republicans in central Texas have been after Chet for a long time. Carving away Ft. Hood and Temple from him seems to have made the difference.

TX 32. Republican Pete Sessions looks strong over Democrat Martin Frost. Both are incumbents, thrown together in the Tom Delay gerrymandered 32nd. Sessions 58% Frost 41% with 1% reporting. Another amazing win if Sessions does it.

Sadly, it looks like Charles Stenholm (Dem) is going to lose to freshman Randy Neugebauer (Rep - TX 19), two more incumbents thrown together in a redrawn district. I say this as a R conservative, Stenholm is a conservative and has served West Texas admirably. Like Ralph Hall from Greenville who recently moved to the Republican party.

Looks like Delay’s plan works. Republicans should pick up four seats in the House. I would feel badly about it, if I hadn’t seen Democrats do the same thing to Republicans for 30 years of my life.

7:53, Central Texas news

Travis County results not in yet because election officials are tallying almost 8000 write-in votes. They want to get those results tallied before they run the numbers for the electronic ballots. This according to KEYE TV, Austin.

In a side-note, a Polish news crew is at the Republican election party. When asked why they were here, they said that Poland shares many of the same concerns as the US and that being an ally in the war on terror, they wanted to cover the election.

871,000 votes in for Texas

Bush 60%, Kerry 39%

District 32 Congressional race:
Sessions ® 57%
Frost (D) 43%

District 25 Congressional race:
Armendariz Klein ® 48%
Doggett (D) 50%

Texas results to start coming in in 5 minutes

6:53 update. KEYETV reporting that some 220,000 voted by noon. Polls closing in 5 minutes. The Texas Secretary of State’s site will begin updating soon.

Polls closing in a half hour

Cool, rainy day in Texas today and around much of the country. My polling place is in an older neighborhood, sort of a mix of older and younger residents. The nice ladies who checked my card said the turnout had been steady, not overwhelmingly busy. I walked right in, signed the form, and voted. Didn’t take 2 minutes.

Looking for early results. Good chance Dallas is going to put Pete Sessions in and send Martin Frost home (Texas 31). A reasonable chance that Arlene Wohlgemuth will defeat the Democratic incumbent Chet Edwards (Texas 17).

Darn falling back from Daylight Savings Time. It was dark at 5:45

Local Austin media begins live coverage

Austin CBS affiliate, KEYE TV, is already running live election coverage. It’s 4:40, CST, as I type this. Their man-on-the-street was at a west Austin elementary school and there were no lines. Polling officials said the crowds were pretty small all day long, but they expected something of a rush as people begin to leave work at 5.

Few polling problems reported so far in Central Texas

As of 12:30 p.m., I’ve only heard of three instances of polling problems in Travis and Williamson counties in Central Texas. Early this morning there were two polling locations in Travis County where the polling judges accidentally shut down their computer systems, causing a delay of about 20 minutes. Travis County uses touchpad ballots. During the noon hour in Williamson County, there was a bad car accident in Round Rock which caused an estimated one-hour delay at a polling location located in a fire station.

Other than these minor problems, there have been no stories from any of the local media of fraud or conflict at any polling sites. So far, so good.

Bush Votes

From the AFP via The Australian :

US President George W. Bush voted today confident of securing a new four-year term, but expressed concern that the US presidential election result must be decided quickly.

“My hope, of course, is this election ends tonight,” said Mr Bush who had to wait 36 days to know the winner in the 2000 election when the Democrats’ Al Gore won the popular vote but the Republican secured more votes on the Electoral College that decides the presidency.

“I think it’s very important for it to end tonight. The world watches our great democracy function, and be nothing better for our system for the election to be conclusively over tonight.”

With polls showing Mr Bush and current Democratic challenger John Kerry in a neck-and-neck race, Mr Bush was to make a campaign stop in Ohio as he returned from voting in Texas to the White House.

“This election is in the hands of the people. And I feel very comfortable about that,” he said after voting with his wife Laura and twin daughters at a fire station in the Texas hamlet of Crawford.

“I think it’s going to be me so I can go on and lead this country, bring people together, set an agenda, which will be to make sure America is secure,” Mr Bush told reporters.

“It’s been a fantastic experience travelling our country, talking about what I believe and where I’m going to lead this country for four more years.

“And, you know, there’s something refreshing about giving it your all and then saying, ‘The people will make the right decision.’ And I believe I’m going to win.”

Mr Bush said the election would be decided on the “big issues of war and peace and the economy.”

“The issue is, who do you trust? Who do you trust to secure this country? Who do you trust to lead with firmness and steadfast resolution to protect the American people? Who do you trust to adhere to the values, the values that most people agree with? Who do you trust to keep this economy growing?

“I’ve got a clear view about how to lead … We’ll see what the people say. Now’s the time for the people to express their will.”

“I am confident in the judgment of the people.”

Mr Bush also sent his regards to Mr Kerry. “I wish him all the best. He and I are in the exact same position. We have given it our all.”

Texas Weather forecast

Here’s a roundup of the weather forecasts for various parts of the state of Texas tomorrow.

Election Day weather forecast for Austin: Morning rain, turning breezy and much cooler than previous days. High 66, low 57.

Dallas/Fort Worth forecast for Election Day: Cloudy, windy and turning cooler, with occasional rain. High 62, low 60.

Houston forecast: 80% chance of thunderstorms. High 70, low 56.

San Antonio forecast: Windy, partly cloudy and a 20% chance of rain. High 69, low 48.

El Paso forecast: Sunny. High 54, low 33.

Brownsville forecast: 40% chance of morning thunderstorms. High 77, low 55.

Central Texas - won't be close, will be fun!

Here we go! Updates from the recently gerrymandered Texas 31st (we had been in the Texas 11th until this year, and boy, do I understand why Dems are hacked off at Tom Delay).

But I also remember watching Dems do the same thing for the last 30 years here, so my emotions are tempered.

Arlene Wolgemuth -R, a state Rep goes up against the incumbent Chet Edwards -D, who took over from Marvin Leath about a hundred years ago.

In the 31st, the freshman incumbent John R. Carter -R dukes it out with trial lawyer (I love saying that) Jon Porter -D.

I’m voting late tomorrow morning. Let’s go!

Bush ends his campaigning in Dallas

President Bush will be at an invitation-only event at Southern Methodist University in Dallas tonight before he goes home to his Crawford ranch. Tomorrow he is expected to vote in the small central-Texas town. The rally is supposed to start around 10 and run for about a half an hour, according to NBC5i.com.

I know of a few people on a discussion board who scored tickets to the event. I’ll pass on more news if I’m able to get it tonight.

Early Voter Turnout

Greetings from central Texas. Early voting has been very popular this year, with some two million Texans voting early in the 15 largest counties according to Austin NBC affiliate KXAN. Despite the high turnout, Texas Secretary of State Geoff Connor speaking in the Austin American-Statesman predicts an average turnout by the end of the day on November 2. Connor says there are 13.1 million voters registered for this election which is 82 percent of the state’s population. In the 2000 election, 85 percent of the population was registered. Historically, the percentage of Texans voting averages 40 percent. Despite the past numbers, officials are hopeful that we’ll see close to 60% of registered voters voting this year.

Travis County, home to the state capitol of Austin, saw 217,000 early voters. Williamson County, just north of Travis (and my home) had 78,000 early voters. The Secretary of State’s website lists the early voting numbers for the 15 largest counties. Harris County, home of Houston, had a 22.55% turnout. Dallas County saw 28% early vote and Collin County, also in the Dallas-Fort Worth area, had the largest percentage with 41.57% of the population taking advantage of early voting.