171,000 Democratic primary early voters in Harris County

Shatters modern-day records. The Harris County clerk, Beverly Kaufman, called the turnout "unprecedented". If EV follows recent trends, then the nation's third-largest county will have over half a million Democrats voting in the primary. That's twice as many as I originally predicted, and that portends a statewide tally of somewhere between 2 and 2.5 million Texans voting Democratic in 2008. A million more Democrats than I thought there would be.

That is a deep, dark blue azure wave sweeping across this red-ass county, and it's going to scuttle a lot of Republicans as it tears across the prairie. We're watching Texas return to its Democratic roots.

But are they all voting all the way down the ballot? Are there a bunch of Republicans making mischief? Or is it independents and ex-Republicans expressing their outrage of the past seven years at the Democratic ballot box? Is it Obama-mania, or just a hotly contested presidential race for the first time in my voting lifetime bearing fruit? Kuffner has several answers, but we'll mostly have to wait for next Wednesday, and a few days afterward, to know for sure.

I'll be making final preparations to participate -- possibly conduct -- my precinct's caucus convention, so expect little here until after Election Day.