Texans have a constitutional right to reserve their vote, but election officials admit that in rate cases, the public can find out how someone voted. Data shows there are fewer immigrants crossing illegally into Texas than into the other three states along the southwest border. And ERCOT says power grid needs will nearly double in six years.
Jack Fink covers these stories and more in the latest edition of Eye on Politics (original airdate: June 16).
secret of the vote
How secret is your vote?
It’s a question being asked at the Texas Capitol and across the state. Texas voters have a constitutional right to a secret ballot, but in some rare circumstances, the public can find out how you voted.
The issue is being discussed after a conservative outlet called Current Revolt published what it said was now the actual ticket for former Texas Republican Party Chairman Matt Rinaldi. Rinaldi has not commented.
This came up at the House Elections Committee hearing this week and one staffer said it’s a legitimate issue.
“That balance we’ve sought between transparency and secrecy has now come to a head,” said Heather Hawthorne of the Texas Association of County and District Clerks.
Texas is very transparent about its elections and passed a bill last year to make even more information available to the public.
A person’s ballot is not public information, but images of the votes cast are. Here’s the rest: who voted, where they live, where their precinct is, and where they actually voted.
In many counties, people can vote anywhere in their county, not just their precinct, both during the early voting period and on Election Day.
While someone cannot specifically request their ballot, in some cases a person could obtain publicly available data and use the deletion process to find out how someone voted.
For example, if you live in Dallas, but voted in Rowlett, it is tracked. And if you’re the only one who did that during an election, your ballot could be identified. In another example, if you are one of the few who voted in a precinct and everyone voted the same way for a particular race, people can find out how you voted.
So what is the solution?
Ten days ago, both the Secretary of State’s Office and the Attorney General’s Office issued statements telling county election officials that they should redact personally identifiable information on ballots. Officials say a recent opinion from the Attorney General’s Office spells it out.
Since all of this has been made public, a short-term solution is for counties to no longer disclose where you actually voted. That will make it harder to track how you voted and your ballot. The Director of the Secretary of State’s Office also suggested that election administrators could also take results from low-turnout precincts and combine them with results from larger precincts.
New trend
Federal statistics show that the number of immigrants crossing illegally into Texas has fallen below the other three states along the southern border.
April statistics from U.S. Customs and Border Protection show the number of people has shifted westward. KeynoteUSA Texas
Last week, the Texas Senate Border Security Committee held a hearing to get an update on the state’s Operation Lone Star at the border, and this new trend came up for discussion.
“You’re seeing cross-border deaths go down, you’re seeing traffic moving west because they’re following the path of least resistance,” Texas border czar Mike Banks testified during the hearing.
As of December 2022, Texas accounted for about 60% of all illegal border crossings on the southern border, or 130,000 migrants. In January of this year, that percentage dropped to 29%, or 36,000 immigrants.
The state’s Operation Lone Star has cost Texas taxpayers $11 billion.
“We will redouble our efforts to add more miles of razor wire, more wall wire, more National Guard,” Gov. Greg Abbott said of next steps in a recent interview with KeynoteUSA Texas. “We will have more soldiers to make sure there are no more illegal entries into our state.”
Here’s what’s already on the ground: Texas has put up 72 miles of commercial-grade fencing, 133 miles of concertina wire barricades and 30 miles of anti-climb fencing. ‘
Governor Abbott recently showed off the state’s new Forward Operating Base in Eagle Pass, which will ultimately house 1,800 National Guard troops. It will have 95 buildings on its 80-acre site. The first 300 soldiers moved in on May 31, and the second phase took place in recent days when another 300 arrived. In total, there will be six phases.
Last week’s border hearing came a week after President Joe Biden signed an executive order restricting asylum at the southern border.
Demand for power
In another hearing last week at the Texas Capitol, ERCOT told state senators that the number of megawatts needed to sustain growth will need to expand significantly over the next five years.
Currently, ERCOT has a charging capacity of 85,000 megawatts. In last year’s initial plan, the grid regulator anticipated that charging capacity would have to grow to 110,000 megawatts over five years. Under the new plan outlined by ERCOT CEO Pablo Vegas, that figure should increase to 150,000 megawatts.
During the hearing at the Texas Capitol, Vegas explained why the state will need an additional 40,000 megawatts to meet peak demand in five years.
“The Permian Basin alone reflects about 24 gigawatts of that growth,” Vegas said. “To put that in context, it’s about the size of the Houston coastal region in the state of Texas.”
Vegas said about half of that is oil and gas electrification and the other half is a combination of green hydrogen, data centers, cryptocurrencies and other traditional industrial businesses.
In a post on X, Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick called Vegas’ comments “shocking.”
ERCOT CEO Pablo Vegas and others gave powerful testimony today at the Senate Business and Commerce Committee that within just six years (i.e., just three legislative sessions), our electric grid needs will grow from approximately 85,000 to 150,000 megawatts. That is much higher than the…
— Office of Lt. Governor Dan Patrick (@LtGovTX) June 12, 2024
Patrick pushed for a constitutional amendment that voters approved last year creating the Texas Energy Fund. The state would provide more than $7 billion in subsidies for private companies to build new natural gas-fired plants to generate the additional gigawatts needed to meet expected energy demand. The state says there are 125 projects worth $39 billion that would produce 56 gigawatts. These projects will now move to the formal application phase. Lawmakers could approve another $5 billion in subsidies due to recently projected growth.
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Jack Fink
Keynote USA
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