Early Voting Begins With Tough Voter Id Law In Place

After dozens of advertisements, a half-dozen fundraising reports, two live debates and a 12-month campaign that spanned Texas, the gubernatorial election between Greg Abbott and Wendy Davis is finally in the hands of the ultimate deciders: the voters. The first in-person votes in this general election will be cast Monday morning as the two-week early-voting period opens with the state's tough voter ID law still in place. On Sunday, Democrats rallied their base and stressed the importance of early voting, especially given Saturday's ruling by the Supreme Court to allow the voter ID law to govern this fall's elections. At churches in Houston's Third and Fifth Wards, local Democratic candidates encouraged African-American voters to not sit out this election. TOP, a political action committee focused on delivering 100,000 unlikely voters - about half of whom are from Harris County - aims to encourage 70,000 of those voters statewide to cast ballots before Election Day. Democrats charge that the state's voter ID law, which was ruled unconstitutional by a U.S.