Texas Primary Election

Today was primary election day in Texas. I avoided the lines and cast my vote for Ron Paul on the first day of early voting. I can't figure out why everyone doesn't early vote. It is so convenient - you can vote at any polling place in the county. I voted at a polling place near my office during my lunch hour and was in and out in ten minutes. Although convenient, this election cycle reinforced my dislike of electronic voting; I have little confidence that my vote was actually counted.

I'm watching the returns on politico.com and the Office of the Texas Secretary of State and Obama and Hillary are even with 28% of precincts reporting. Hillary is winning big among heavily-Hispanic counties (Bexar-San Antonio, Nueces-Corpus Christi, Webb-Laredo, Cameron-Brownsville) while Obama is winning big in Harris, Travis and Dallas counties. Unfortunately for Obama, Hispanics outnumber blacks by 2-to-1 in Texas. I don't have a dog in this fight, but it is fun to watch if you're a political junkie like me.

Republican voters continue to disappoint as McCain has a 57-37 lead over Huck, with Paul only garnering ~5%. However, there was one pleasant outcome today. I am happy to say that voters in U.S Representative District 14 are selecting Dr. Paul by a 2-to-1 margin. Unless something drastic happens after I go to bed, Ron Paul will be returning to the Washington.

Although Dr. Paul has repeatedly said that he will not run as a third party candidate there are rumors on the web about a possible Ron Paul/Bob Barr third party ticket. The Constitution Party nominating convention is April 23-26. I will wait and see. But I'm not holding my breath - I went ahead and removed the Ron Paul for President stickers from the bumpers of our cars this evening.

Update: Ron Paul crushed his opponent, Chris Peden, 70-30%. Dr. Paul will run unopposed in the November election and will return to Washington for another term.