State has record number of registered voters
With early voting ending Friday, Oct. 30, Texas Secretary of State Robert Howden announced the state has 19 million registered voters — a record number ahead of the Nov. 3 election.
“Texas continues to see strong voter registration numbers, and we want every eligible Texan to be prepared to participate in the upcoming election," Howden said. 
As of Friday, Oct. 23, more than 2.7 million Texans had voted early, and the final early voting tally appears likely to set a record.
Voters who did not cast early ballots can find their polling place for the Nov. 3 election by visiting votetexas.gov, a nonpartisan site operated by the secretary of state’s office.
 

Abbott, Hinojosa trade jabs in tight governor’s race
Gov. Greg Abbott, seeking an unprecedented fourth term, told Republican voters that the state faces a choice between “common sense and crazy” in a race that appears far closer than originally expected, The Dallas Morning News reported. He faces Democrat Gina Hinojosa, an Austin state representative.
Hinojosa responded that Abbott is using culture wars to distract from his record on school vouchers, data centers and property taxes.
“After 12 years, Texans are ready for a governor who will put the people – not billionaires – first,” she said in a statement. She announced last week that she has sued Abbott seeking the release of unredacted emails between the governor’s office and billionaire Elon Musk, who is spending heavily on behalf of GOP candidates in Texas.
 

Is it now Talarico vs. Musk in Senate race?
Senate candidate James Talarico, the Democratic nominee, faces record spending by Musk, who has already spent $150 million supporting Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton, the Republican nominee. Musk — who has received millions in state contracts and tax incentives for his companies, including SpaceX and Tesla, both with headquarters in Texas — has been active on social media, attacking Talarico. Musk has called Talarico a “creep” who “hates Texas,” according to the Houston Chronicle.
Talarico has vowed to take on billionaires in his campaign and pushed back against Musk in speeches last week.
“In all likelihood, if you have seen an attack ad on your TV, that was Elon,” Talarico said last week. “If you’ve gotten lies in your mailbox, that was Elon. If you’ve received a text message saying scary things about me, that was Elon, too. Ken Paxton is funded by one dude.”
Most polls show Talarico with a slight lead, generally within the margin of error. Texas has not elected a Democrat to a statewide office since 1994.
 

State still processing data center permits
Despite Abbott’s order last month to pause data center projects in Texas, state regulators are still processing permits, the Texas Standard reported. On Sept. 21, Abbott directed the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality to “halt all permits sought by data centers.”
However, the oil and gas watchdog group Frac Tracker, along with Public Citizen, identified 35 permitting actions taken by TCEQ since that order was given.
“TCEQ has continued reviewing applications and issuing approvals that allow data center development to proceed,” the groups said. “These actions do not signal an agency trying to pause.”
Abbott’s press secretary Andrew Mahaleris said the pause applies to approval, not processing, of permits.
“No permits have been approved,” he said in a statement. “In line with the governor’s directive, TCEQ has not taken and will not take any proactive actions related to the approval of data center permits.”
Since the directive from Abbott, the TCEQ has fast-tracked or assigned engineers to 14 permits, approved stormwater coverage for 11, certified emissions estimates for seven, and issued public notices for three, according to permitting documents collected by the watchdog groups
“We need an actual pause to study the threats posed to the land, water and livelihoods of Texans,” Sam Law, author of the report, said.
 

Voucher spending on private schools kept secret
State Comptroller Don Huffines has refused to answer public information requests about how millions of dollars in state funds have been distributed to private schools and vendors under the $1 billion school voucher program, the Austin American-Statesman reported.
Huffines’ office has said concerns about student privacy and the state’s history of not providing information on private schools justify keeping the voucher spending secret.
The comptroller’s office released a list of more than 2,700 schools approved to participate in the voucher program and a list of nearly 2,200 approved vendors, but it did not disclose how much money each has received. The office said that releasing the amount of money spent could be considered a student record used to identify an individual student, which is prohibited by federal law. 
“We’ve tried to take a conservative approach,” the comptroller’s office said. “When something’s out, you can’t take it back.”
His Democratic opponent, state Sen. Sarah Eckhardt, D-Austin, has vowed to audit the program if elected.
“If we really, really, really think vouchers are going to improve the educational outcome of the children who get them, then we need transparency and honesty about it,” Eckhardt said.
 

Supreme Court asked to rule on Big Bend border wall
The Trump administration last week asked the Supreme Court to allow it to resume building a border wall through the Big Bend region, The Texas Tribune reported. A lower court halted construction after a coalition of ranchers, residents, business owners, and environmentalists successfully argued that the projects are a waste of money in a region with low illegal immigration and that construction would harm the region’s scenic landscapes.
The government filed an emergency appeal asking the high court to lift the lower court decision.
U.S. District Judge Kathleen Cardone in early October ordered the government to halt construction of the roughly 500-mile project while the case winds its way through the courts.
 

Gary Borders is a veteran award-winning Texas journalist. He published a number of community newspapers in Texas during a 30-year span, including in Longview, Fort Stockton, Nacogdoches, Lufkin and Cedar Park. Email: gborders@texaspress.com.