Lisa Dickison

SAVE TIME VOTING

Some locations have long lines at certain times. It’s a good plan to an alternate location when the lines are long. It’s sometimes an hour’s wait at First Assembly or Hewitt City Hall/Library during Early Voting. Since all the locations are about 15 minutes away, you could drive there, vote, and be back before you get to the front of the line.

The same goes for Election Day, but there are more locations. The image on the right has red stars by the locations that are a few minutes drive from First Assembly. The drive and voting will take less time than standing in line at First Assembly.

MCLENNANVOTES.COM

This website has just about everything you will want to know about the Primary Election.

Dates, times, and locations where you can vote.
Sample ballots
- There is one ballot for Republican voters and two for Democrats. The Dems have a run off for Precinct 5 JP.
Information about voting by mail. Sending in the application will cause the Elections Office to send you an absentee ballot for each of the remaining election for this year. That includes the Primary run-off, the municipal elections, and the November election. If you send in this form at the beginning of the year, you will receive all the ballots for that year.

SAMPLE BALLOTS

Sample ballots are available here.

The Texas Secretary of State has a page called Personal Voter Portal. You can check your voter registration, find your voting precinct, and get other information.

ELECTION RESULTS

County Election results – available at this link around 730pm on March 3rd.
Statewide results – available starting around 730pm on March 3rd.

MY RECOMMENDATIONS

THE MOST IMPORTANT THING!

Whoever you vote for, the most important think in this run-off election is to show the strength of the Republican vote in Texas. There are only around 100,000 more Republican voters in the March 3rd Primary than Democrat voters.

It is not required that you cast a vote in every race. You have the option to cast a blank ballot with no selections for any race. This is known as an "undervote" and it is a valid choice. If you don't wish to make a choice on one or more of these races, but still want to have your vote counted as "Republican," you can absolutely do that. The scanner will ask if that's what you intended and you can indicate that you intended to submit a blank ballot.

UNITED STATES SENATOR

Ken Paxton - For me, they each have their good points and drawbacks. Cornyn is establishments and status quo. We wouldn't be worse off if he won. Paxton would be excellent on the issues, which is what really matters. I have some problems with the way he has managed his personal life. I suppose everyone knows he's not a big fan of marital fidelity, so he's not likely to be a blackmail target. I wonder about the integrity of someone who doesn't take marriage vows seriously. Still, he has the edge mostly because he's not the status quo.

ATTORNEY GENERAL

Mayes Middleton - There is no doubt that Texas would be well-served by either of these candidates for this office. For my preference, it comes down to personality. Chip Roy sometimes takes what I consider the wrong side of issues. He stands his ground way too long when it seems the better course would be to go with the others, which he often does. Going by his record in the Texas Legislature, Middleton seemed to lead and bring others along. He has also visited Waco a couple of times during campaign. Roy may have, but I didn't know it. I had the chance to chat with Middleton for a few minutes and he was very personable. That indicates to me that he cares what the average voter thinks.

RAILROAD COMMISSIONER

Jim Wright - Wright has been doing the job for six years. We seem to be in a good position. He's been accused of donating to Democrats. I don't like to see that, but it's only one thing to consider. I haven't taken the time to investigate when and to whom they were given. There may be a good explanation. French doesn't have a good reputation. One of my friends who has more visibility into this job indicated that he wasn't a good candidate. I'll skip the details of that. He has been accused of not paying taxes. I haven't investigated that. His name has come up for years and I've never been very impressed.

JUDGE, COURT OF CRIMINAL APPEALS, PLACE 3

For those who may not know, The Court of Criminal Appeals in Texas is the "Court of Last Resort" for criminal cases. When you hear about a court giving a stay of execution in Texas, these are the people who do that. They hear appeals and their word is the last word. It's literally life and death in some cases.

Alison Fox - The difference here is experience. Fox has worked with criminal cases most, if not all, of her legal career. It has been said that Smith has no experience with criminal cases. Fox has been to Waco to meet with voters here. Smith has not, but I understand that he will be speaking to a gathering of Republicans at Republican Social Hour on May 25th, the night before Election Day. The organizers tried to make it earlier and were willing to reschedule, but Smith's calendar wouldn't allow that.