Texas law and Harris County elected officials are calling it a "public calamity" that has thrust elections into a sudden mode of uncertainty.
A morning 3-alarm fire destroyed an old, beat up warehouse off Canino and Downey in northeast Harris County. While it may have looked like any other non-descript warehouse in the neighborhood, some 10,000 pieces of election equipment and "nearly all of the county's voting machines, which were to be used for the upcoming elections" were burned up in the fire....
... Fire Marshal's arson investigators had yet to determine a cause of the fire on Friday night. There was a delay in beginning the investigation due to crucial areas of the warehouse remaining hot and smoldering for much of the day. ...Examiner
Since Houston usually produces a nice vote for Democrats, this possible piece of arson raises questions like "how far will these nuts go?"
Rather than launch into speculation and conspiracy theories, let's go to one of the most knowledgeable blogs. Brains and Eggs. It's based in Houston.
Lunchtime update: all 10,000 e-Slates and accompanying MBBs were destroyed. There's a press conference scheduled this afternoon where Kaufman will announce a plan going forward, which seems at this point to consist of borrowing machines from neighboring counties. There isn't anything close to 10,000 DREs on standby in the entire state; I'd be surprised if she can collect 1,000 from Harris County's next-door neighbors. So rather than try to get something in on short notice to replace the former system, Kaufman apparently wants to keep the current protocol in place, which does have the value of minimizing errors, opportunities for mischief, and liability on her part. I predict she will underscore the importance of early voting and patience. Early conclusion: we'll have considerably fewer machines to vote with, and much longer lines to stand in to vote.
You get the picture. It may look like Ohio in 2004, remember? Only probably a little bit warmer.
