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Final push ahead of early voting
The midterm campaign is almost over. Early voting starts Monday, with several candidates this weekend launching one last big push for voters.
AUSTIN, Texas - It's crunch time and a lot of political calculus is being done along with some voting precinct forecasting.
Targeting is the new midterm game plan, but not the illegal hit that can draw a flag on the gridiron.
Early voting begins on Monday, Oct. 19 and runs through Friday, Oct. 30.
What they're saying:
On Battleground Texas, political analyst Brian Smith from St. Edward's University spoke about the new political strategy, which is essentially a 2-minute drill to the endzone.
"They want to lock in votes early, meaning getting people who are going to vote Democrat or Republican getting them out to votes sooner. That way they can focus their attention on areas of the state that might not vote as much and also on those undecideds," said Smith.
The initial release of the early voting numbers on election night may provide a clear indication of who will win the final count.
"The major metros underperformed, that's good news for the Republicans," said Smith.
Campaign managers are looking for which area of the state is best to hit. Bus tours and Mass Media Ad blitzes will dominate most of the days leading up to November 3RD.
"The base is what matters to both parties. That's what likely will be the real non-surprise on election day," said Steven Dial with FOX 4 Dallas.
No debates?
The political messaging will not include political debating.
On Friday, GOP Railroad Commission candidate Bo French posted on social media that he never agreed to do an early vote debate with Democrat rival Jon Rosenthal. That face-off would have been the only top of the ballot clash.
Greg Groogan with FOX 26 Houston indicated it's too soon to tell if the Texas GOP misplayed debating or if it was a good dodge.
"Look, it's a big gamble. They're running this election like the last one. And the rules? Well, they may have changed, Rudy, and we’re going to find out on November 3rd," said Groogan.
Voter registration glitch…again
Questions about who will be able to vote were raised again Friday when it was revealed that there was another voter registration glitch. It involved about 15,000 people who made updates through the Texas.gov site.
The updates were described as things like a change of address.
A spokesperson for the Texas Secretary of State's office told FOX 7 Austin the problem is now resolved, and the registered voters caught up in the glitch will be able to vote.
This new glitch follows another IT glitch with a DPS computer program. A few weeks ago, county clerks across Texas learned that several thousand new voter registration forms were held up and not processed.
That backlog, reportedly, was recently cleared by local county clerks.
The Source: Information in this report comes from Battleground Texas