Alexa Ura | The Texas Tribune

The high court left intact a key provision of the federal Voting Rights Act in a case many feared would go the other way. The decision’s importance in ongoing litigation over Texas’ political maps will largely be felt in what didn’t happen.

Federal monitors will be on the ground in Harris, Dallas and Waller counties on Election Day as part of the department’s regular deployment for major elections.

They were high school sweethearts. Irma Garcia taught at Robb Elementary for her entire 23-year career. Her husband died of a heart attack two days after she was shot.

Immigrants, people living in poverty and non-English speakers were among the most likely to be missed, yet the crucial count received lackluster promotion by Texas state government.

Mason said she didn’t know she was ineligible to vote when she cast a provisional ballot in 2016, but she was sentenced to five years. Now, the Court of Criminal Appeals says an appellate court that affirmed her conviction must look again at the evidence of Mason’s intent.

As Texas defends against accusations that its new political maps are discriminatory, it’s laying the groundwork to ask the U.S. Supreme Court to throw out longstanding Voting Rights Act protections.

A group of students at Prairie View A&M University sued the county, claiming it set up an election schedule in 2018 that offered students — most of them Black — fewer opportunities to vote early than the county’s white residents.

How many voters were effectively disenfranchised by new ID requirements for mail-in voting won’t be known for another week. Voters can still try to correct defective ballots.

Patrick’s mass mailing urging voters to apply for mail-in ballots included return envelopes addressed to the Texas secretary of state’s office. The applications are supposed to be sent to local offices, but Patrick’s campaign says voters don’t trust election officials in Democratic counties.

Local elections officials say an unexpectedly large number of ballots for the March primary are being initially rejected for lacking newly required ID information.

An initial review of four counties’ election results — launched after pressure from former President Donald Trump and touted by GOP leaders — showed few discrepancies between electronic and hand counts of ballots in a sample of voting precincts.