Prediction - Parts of Texas will have problems with bad election judges

You can read what took place in Collin County during early voting. Harris County should be much better because of the staff under Paul Bettencourt, even if not partisan Bettencourt himself.

According to some poll watchers at the Collin College Spring Creek campus polling place, the election judge, refused to allow the watchers to enter the election clerks area to observe the check-in process. On Friday, the judge, James Middleton, called the campus police and threatened to have the poll watchers removed. Even though the police were dispatched, common sense prevailed and the poll watchers were permitted to remain, however they were never granted full access to observe.

Texas election law grants a full and absolute right to election poll watchers to observe all elections processes except the actual voting by a voter.

When shown a copy of the election code, the watcher reported the judge said he didn't care about the code, that he'd been a judge for many years and knew what he was doing. At least one of the poll watchers indicated to me that he was contemplating filing a criminal complaint of "obstructing a watcher" over these incidents.

I am actually not a big fan of poll watchers. If you want to see if an election judge is fair sign up to be the alternate judge or one of his election clerks and not just a poll watcher.

Tags: Texas, elections, laws, poll watchers