Editing Waller County, Texas (section)

==Politics and government==
{{PresHead|place=Waller County, Texas|source=<ref>{{cite web | url=http://uselectionatlas.org/RESULTS | title=Dave Leip's Atlas of U.S. Presidential Elections}}</ref>}}
<!-- PresRow should be {{PresRow|Year|Winning party|GOP vote #|Dem vote #|3rd party vote #|State}} -->
{{PresRow|2024|Republican|17,077|10,183|301|Texas}}
{{PresRow|2020|Republican|14,260|8,191|283|Texas}}
{{PresRow|2016|Republican|10,531|5,748|505|Texas}}
{{PresRow|2012|Republican|9,244|6,514|144|Texas}}
{{PresRow|2008|Republican|8,265|7,153|90|Texas}}
{{PresRow|2004|Republican|7,679|6,145|57|Texas}}
{{PresRow|2000|Republican|5,686|5,046|126|Texas}}
{{PresRow|1996|Democratic|3,559|4,535|528|Texas}}
{{PresRow|1992|Democratic|3,065|4,270|1,723|Texas}}
{{PresRow|1988|Democratic|3,607|3,957|60|Texas}}
{{PresRow|1984|Republican|4,116|3,828|19|Texas}}
{{PresRow|1980|Democratic|3,019|3,329|115|Texas}}
{{PresRow|1976|Democratic|1,992|2,828|42|Texas}}
{{PresRow|1972|Republican|2,263|1,538|38|Texas}}
{{PresRow|1968|Democratic|958|1,684|797|Texas}}
{{PresRow|1964|Democratic|980|2,167|2|Texas}}
{{PresRow|1960|Republican|1,115|1,101|51|Texas}}
{{PresRow|1956|Republican|1,426|929|42|Texas}}
{{PresRow|1952|Republican|1,487|1,264|2|Texas}}
{{PresRow|1948|Democratic|448|812|374|Texas}}
{{PresRow|1944|Democratic|190|1,007|239|Texas}}
{{PresRow|1940|Democratic|300|1,065|1|Texas}}
{{PresRow|1936|Democratic|111|889|2|Texas}}
{{PresRow|1932|Democratic|89|1,192|2|Texas}}
{{PresRow|1928|Democratic|376|504|1|Texas}}
{{PresRow|1924|Democratic|203|1,239|19|Texas}}
{{PresRow|1920|Democratic|167|674|409|Texas}}
{{PresRow|1916|Democratic|182|636|8|Texas}}
{{PresFoot|1912|Democratic|144|594|120|Texas}}

===United States Congress===
{| class="wikitable"
|-
! colspan="2" align="center" valign="bottom" | '''Senators'''
! align="center" valign="bottom" | '''Name'''
! align="center" valign="bottom" | '''Party'''
! align="center" valign="bottom" | '''First Elected'''
! align="center" valign="bottom" | '''Level'''
|-
| bgcolor="red" |&nbsp;
| Senate Class 1
| [[John Cornyn]]
| [[Republican Party (United States)|Republican]]
| 2002
| Senior Senator
|-
| bgcolor="red" |&nbsp;
| Senate Class 2
| [[Ted Cruz]]
| [[Republican Party (United States)|Republican]]
| 2012
| Junior Senator
|-
! colspan="2" align="center" valign="bottom" | '''Representatives'''
! align="center" valign="bottom" | '''Name'''
! align="center" valign="bottom" | '''Party'''
! align="center" valign="bottom" | '''First Elected'''
! align="center" valign="bottom" | '''Area(s) of Waller County Represented'''
|-
| bgcolor="red" |&nbsp;
| District 10
| [[Michael McCaul]]
| [[Republican Party (United States)|Republican]]
| 2004
| Entire county
|}

===Texas Legislature===

====Texas Senate====
'''District 18:''' [[Lois Kolkhorst]] ([[Republican Party (United States)|R]])- first elected in 2014.

====Texas House of Representatives====
'''District 3:''' [[Cecil Bell, Jr.]] ([[Republican Party (United States)|R]])- first elected in 2013.

===Voting controversies===
A history of controversies exists regarding the reluctance of county officials to allow students attending [[Historically Black colleges and universities|historically black]] [[Prairie View A&M University]] to vote in Waller County.<ref>[https://www.nytimes.com/2008/05/28/us/28texas.html "2 Voter Rights Cases, One Gripping a College Town, Stir Texas" by Ralph Blumenthal], ''New York Times'', May 28, 2008</ref><ref>[http://www.chron.com/neighborhood/katy-news/article/Judges-slap-Waller-voter-rules-give-hand-to-1779069.php "Judges slap Waller voter rules, give hand to Prairie View" by Cindy George], ''Houston Chronicle'' October 24, 2008</ref>[https://web.archive.org/web/20110717130309/http://www.usstudents.org/press-room/articles/february-2008/prairie-view-students-experiencing-voting-problems-in-waller-county-texas/?searchterm=voter]

As reported by the US District Court (Southern District of Texas, Corpus Christi Division) in ''Veasey v Perry'', October 2014 (CIVIL ACTION NO. 13-CV-00193), pp 6–7 verbatim:
* In 1971, after the 26th Amendment extended the vote to those 18 years old and older, Waller County, which was home to Prairie View A&M University (PVAMU), a historically Black university, became troubled with race issues. Waller County's tax assessor and voter registrar prohibited students from voting unless they or their families owned property in the county. This practice was ended by a three-judge court in 1979.
* In 1992, a county prosecutor indicted PVAMU students for illegally voting, but dropped the charges after receiving a protest from the DOJ.
* In 2003, a PVAMU student ran for the commissioner's court. The local district attorney and county attorney threatened to prosecute students for voter fraud—for not meeting the old domicile test. These threatened prosecutions were enjoined, but Waller County then reduced early voting hours, which was particularly harmful to students because the election day was during their spring break. After the NAACP filed suit, Waller County reversed the changes to early voting and the student narrowly won the election.
* In 2007–08, during then Senator Barack Obama's campaign for president, Waller County made a number of voting changes without seeking clearance. The county rejected "incomplete" voter registrations and required volunteer deputy registrars (VDRs) to personally find and notify the voters of the rejection. The county also limited the number of new registrations any VDR could submit, thus limiting the success of voter registration drives. These practices were eventually prohibited by a consent decree.

In 2018, the NAACP Legal Defense Fund filed a lawsuit in U.S. district court, alleging that the county's early-voting plan unduly limits early voting opportunities for students at Prairie View A&M.<ref>[https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2018/11/prairie-view-m-students-file-suit-over-voting-hours/574600/ "Fighting for the Right to Vote in a Tiny Texas County" by Vann R. Newkirk II and Adam Harris], ''The Atlantic'' magazine.</ref>  On October 10, Jacob Aronowitz, a field director for Democratic U.S. House candidate Mike Siegel, delivered a letter from Siegel, which indicated a solution to attempts to keep students at Prairie View A&M University from voting, to a clerk on the county executive's staff. As a result, Aronowitz was arrested for what he was told was "48 hour investigative detention."<ref>{{Cite web|last1=Eversden|first1=Andrew|last2=Platoff|first2=Emma|date=October 11, 2018|title=Campaign for congressional candidate Mike Siegel disputes account of worker's arrest|url=https://www.texastribune.org/2018/10/11/campaign-congressional-candidate-mike-siegel-disputes-account-workers-/|access-date=May 15, 2021|website=The Texas Tribune|language=en}}</ref>

===Law enforcement===
{{As of|2021}} the current sheriff is Troy Guidry, who was elected in 2020.<ref>{{Cite web|title=HOME|url=http://www.wallercountytexassheriff.org/|access-date=December 12, 2021|website=www.wallercountytexassheriff.org}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|last=Lewis|first=Brooke A.|date=October 23, 2020|title=Waller County voters to elect first new sheriff since 2008|url=https://www.houstonchronicle.com/news/houston-texas/houston/article/Waller-County-voters-to-elect-first-new-sheriff-15669198.php|access-date=December 12, 2021|website=Houston Chronicle|language=en-US}}</ref> The previous sheriff was Glenn Smith, who had been sheriff since 2008. Smith was previously chief of the police department of [[Hempstead, Texas|Hempstead]], where he had been fired by the town council 
after allegations that he and four white officers had exhibited racism and [[police brutality]] during the arrest of a 35-year-old black man.<ref>{{cite news|last1=Foxhall|first1=Emily|title=Waller County sheriff seeks 3rd term after difficult year|url=http://www.houstonchronicle.com/news/houston-texas/houston/article/Waller-County-sheriff-seeks-3rd-term-after-6854984.php|accessdate=March 3, 2017|publisher=Houston Chronicle}}</ref>

In November 2021, a 16 year old was charged with six counts of aggravated assault for crashing into six people on bicycles while attempting to [[rolling coal|roll coal]]. All four of the riders were hospitalized for their injuries, two of them being airlifted.<ref name="wp">{{cite news|url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2021/11/09/texas-teen-driver-bicyclists-truck-charges/|title=Teen who hit 6 bicyclists with truck while allegedly harassing them faces felony charges, authorities say|newspaper=[[The Washington Post]]}}</ref><ref name="bicycling">{{cite web|url=https://www.bicycling.com/news/a37808647/texas-driver-assaults-six-cyclists/|title=16-Year-Old Texas Truck Driver Who Hit Six Cyclists Charged With Felonies|date=November 9, 2021}}</ref> According to attorneys hired by the injured, the injuries included "broken vertebrae, cervical and lumbar spinal injuries, broken collar bones, hands, and wrists [requiring surgical intervention], multiple traumatic brain injuries, lacerations, soft tissue damage, road rash, and extensive bruising"<ref name="bikelaw">{{cite web|url=https://www.bikelaw.com/2021/10/waller-bike-crash/|title=Coal-rolling Texas truck driver plows into 6 cyclists|date=October 2, 2021 }}</ref> The Waller county district attorney, Elton Mathis, released a statement about the handling of the case by the Waller Police Department in which he said "This case was not handled appropriately by the investigating agency.   PERIOD."  According to his statement, the [[Texas Department of Public Safety]] urged the local police to treat the scene as a crime scene, and to contact the district attorney's office. Despite this, the local police released the 16 year old without doing an investigation.<ref name="wp" /><ref name="bicycling" />