TRANSCRIPT
You’re listening to Red River Radio News.
Good morning, I’m Jeff Ferrell.
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INTRO:
Three civil rights organizations are suing Texas Secretary of State Robert Howden.
They are demanding the state to hand over records related to delays in processing more than half a million voter registration applications.
As Houston Public Media’s Andrew Schneider reports, the lawsuit comes amid concerns about votes being counted in this year’s unusually competitive statewide elections:
SOT:
“The Secretary of State’s Office says Texas counties have cleared the backlog of more than half a million voter registration applications. Bradley Heard of the Southern Poverty Law Center, which represents the three civil rights organizations, says if that’s the case, the state should have no problem producing the records his clients have asked for. “Particularly in a close election, where every vote may count, we want to make sure…that people who are or should have been lawfully registered to vote are able to do so and have their votes counted. The Secretary of State’s Office says any voter who registered but doesn’t appear on the rolls can cast a provisional ballot. Heard says provisional ballots can be rejected and are not complete substitutions for ballots cast and counted on Election Day.”
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INTRO:
In Louisiana, preliminary numbers show more than half-a-million people took part in early voting statewide, ahead of the November 3rd midterm election.
Louisiana Public Radio reporter Brooke Thorington explains:
SOT:
“Early numbers from the Louisiana Secretary of State’s office show 521,000 voted early or absentee. Almost 16-thousand more Democrats than Republicans came out to vote. And no-party voters were almost double the 2022 numbers. Political Science Professor Robert Hogan says the total this year is unpredictable. “One of the other trends that we have seen in some states is more people casting ballots early, as opposed to waiting for election day. And election day being on a Tuesday, it’s not like a weekend, when they have more free time.” Election day is this Tuesday, November 3.”
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INTRO:
In Arkansas, farmers can now apply for up to $25,000 through a federal grant program.
Little Rock Public Radio’s rural issues reporter Amir Mahmoud reports:
SOT:
“The USDA-funded programs offering producer grants of up to $20,000 for individual farmers and $25,000 groups. The grants are administered through the Southern Sustainable Agriculture Research and Education, or SARE, program. The grant money is meant to help farmers and ranchers conduct hands-on research and find innovative solutions for problems they face. Ian Daniel, a livestock expert at the University of Arkansas at Pine Bluff, said the goal of the grant is for farmers to share what efforts worked and didn’t work to solve issues related to sustainable agriculture. “What this organization want [sic] to see is somebody that has an idea that has not been funded in the past; an idea that if you test it and we have good results then it can be a problem-solver for many other farmers going forward. Jeffrey Jordan is the director of the Southern SARE program based at the University of Georgia. He encouraged farmers in Arkansas and across the region to apply to the USDA grant. “So the more projects we get in, the better chance of finding really good ones. We have been generally successful over the years in getting a good number of grants coming in.”
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The National Weather Service in Shreveport is calling for:
- Mostly sunny skies today, with a high near 84.
- Tomorrow: 79 degrees and Mostly cloudy.
- For the weekend: a bit wet and a bit cooler – with a 50 percent chance of showers and thunderstorms Saturday, and a high near 77.
Then 81 Sunday, with partly sunny conditions and a 20 percent chance of showers before 1:00 p.m.
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