There’s only a handful of days left before voters begin to commit to presidential candidates. You might say it’s getting real.
There’s only a handful of days left before voters begin to commit to their presidential candidates of choice. (We're looking at you, Iowa.) You might say it’s getting real, y'all. How real? Try this one on for size: Texas has added almost 2 million more voters to its rolls since the last presidential race. Texas now has a record-setting 16 million people registered to vote. The real question is whether these numbers will make a difference in electoral outcomes, as many have predicted. For years, it's been a given that Texas is the "reddest of red states," but as our own commentator W.F. Strong has noted, sometimes Texas' most closely held "truisms" prove surprisingly off-the-mark. Adding to the uncertainty in this election season: a certain drama in
the U.S. Senate, unsettled as of this writing. It all comes together in this week's selection of stories, hand-picked by our editors. We hope you enjoy them, and until next Wednesday - we'll see you on the radio.
- David Brown
Voter Registration In Texas Reaches A Record 16 Million
"We’re almost about 2 million more voters than we had four years ago during the presidential race."
Personalized Grocery Shopping Is Here To Stay As H-E-B Pushes Pickup
While contractor-based services like Instacart are all over Texas grocery stores, San Antonio-based H-E-B operates its popular curbside pickup and delivery services in-house.
How Volunteers Are Counting The Number Of Homeless Texans (The Texas Tribune)
Austin Unveils Mural To Mark 'Hi, How Are You?' Day For Mental Health Awareness (KUT)
At Muleshoe Refuge, Sandhill Cranes Are the Sound of a Prairie Sanctuary (Marfa Public Radio)
New Exhibits Capture Advances In Army Medicine Since WWII (Texas Public Radio)
It was closing in on midnight on Nov. 5, when I was refreshing my computer, waiting for the results of Midland’s fall elections. The tally should have been posted hours ago, and my gut was telling me something was off. There were a lot of important races on this ballot. Two city council seats were up for grabs, and a competitive mayoral race was underway. Plus, the local school district was asking for a $569 million bond to build two new schools – a proposal which had divided the community. Finally, the results came in and I, along with so many other local journalists, began reporting. At that point, none of us knew how
hundreds of ballots had gone missing or that local officials announced the wrong results for the half a billion-dollar bond initiative. Only now, almost three months later, do we know the true results
of Midland ISD’s bond election and that every vote was counted in Midland’s fall elections. It’s the kind of weird and complex story reporters face in West Texas all the time – stories that could stay under the radar if it weren’t for the reporters out here. To see more of my reporting from the Permian Basin, head to the Marfa Public Radio website.
