Darryl Kile

Commentary has said it before about how the elections were conducted in Harris County last month. No races were impacted to the point where results could be questioned.

This is from a Texas Monthly piece that has just been posted:

By midafternoon on Election Day, Martin Renteria realized he had a problem. Renteria was the presiding election judge at the Northampton MUD Community Center, in the Houston suburb of Spring. The polling place had opened at 7 a.m. with 1,000 sheets of legal-sized ballot paper. Now it was 2:30 p.m., and Renteria was down to his last 250 sheets. Because each ballot required two pieces of paper, that meant the polling location would only be able to accommodate 125 more voters. 

Renteria called Harris County’s central election office to request more ballots. He was told that a fresh supply would be delivered at 3:30. When no ballots arrived, he called the office again. No one answered the phone, so he left a voice message. Twenty minutes later, Renteria called a third time. This time, someone picked up. Renteria was told that he wasn’t alone: his location was on a list of fifty polling places across the county that were running low on ballots. “I explained that we would be completely out of ballots within the hour if we could not be resupplied,” he recently recalled. “The staff member told me that if we run out of ballots to close the station and reroute voters to other stations.” 

With supplies dwindling, Renteria resorted to begging the election judge at nearby Klein High School for extra ballots. The judge sent five hundred extra sheets of paper, which kept Renteria’s polling place in operation until 6:30, half an hour before the polls were scheduled to close. At that point, Renteria had to turn away the approximately forty voters who were still in line. He has no idea how many of those people, if any, managed to cast their ballots at another location. “It was extremely frustrating,” he said. “In the six years that I’ve been presiding judge at that location, that was the first time this has ever happened.”

Here is the entire read: Harris County Botched Another Election. The GOP Senses Opportunity. (texasmonthly.com).

This is extremely disappointing. This is happening as Democrats control Harris County government. This is never acceptable. This needs to be fully explained and fixed. Shameful.

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This is a sampling of the guest list from last night’s State Dinner at the White House:

Jennifer Garner & Miss Violet Affleck

The Honorable Kamala Harris, Vice President of the United States & Mr. Douglas Emhoff, Second Gentleman of the United States

The Honorable Lina Hidalgo, Judge, Harris County, Texas & Mr. David James

The Honorable Sylvester Turner, Mayor of Houston, Texas & Ms. Stephanie Nellons-Paige

Mr. Stephen Colbert & Ms. Evelyn McGee-Colbert

Hope they had fun.

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Former Astro pitcher Darryl Kile left us way too soon in 2002. He pitched for us from 1991-1997. He tossed a no-no against the Mets in 1993 at the Dome.  He also pitched for the Rockies and San Luis from 1998-2002.  A three time All Star, twice as an Astro. Darryl would be 54 today.