Hunting fictions about voting in Texas
Texas Secretary of State Esperanza “Hope” Andrade, the state’s chief elections officer, held a press conference April 4, 2012, to talk up a promotional campaign she described as clearing away voter myths in advance of the state’s May 29, 2012, party primaries and November 2012 general election.
We asked Andrade to specify two or three of the fictions; she demurred.
But right after the event outside the Texas Capitol, the election administrator of Grimes County buttonholed us and said the biggest perennial myth about voting is that “your (one) vote doesn’t count.”
Rebecca Duff, the administrator, recalled that a Democratic primary challenger to the Grimes County judge in 2002 won by one vote after a hand recount, details we confirmed in a telephone interview with the county’s clerk, David Pasket. Unfortunately, that winner, Paul Shiflett, fell to illness before that year’s November election, as reported by the Bryan-College Station Eagle Oct. 9, 2002.
Looking ahead: The deadline to register to vote in the Texas primaries is April 30, 2012.
Our Sources
Interview, Rebecca Duff, Grimes County election administrator/voter registrar, April 4, 2012
Telephone interview, David Pasket, Grimes County clerk, April 4, 2012
