9.2.2026: GOP Protests Mosque Voting Locations

Our Take

Texas Scorecard's rundown is mostly local political theater — mosque polling-place protests, a precious metals law, a Planned Parenthood lawsuit — but the segment with Rep. Keith Self touching on "Islam and the Surveillance State" caught our eye. We don't have the full context of his remarks, and we're not going to put words in his mouth. But it's worth noting how often "surveillance state" gets invoked as a rhetorical weapon in culture-war fights, while the actual infrastructure of mass surveillance — ALPR networks like Flock Safety, parked on city streets and quietly logging every car that passes — barely gets a mention in the same breath.

That's the disconnect we track at DeFlock. Lawmakers across the spectrum will reach for "surveillance state" language when it's politically convenient, yet the bipartisan expansion of license plate readers keeps humming along in the background, mostly unchallenged, in red counties and blue counties alike. If Texas politicians are genuinely worried about surveillance infrastructure, the thousands of Flock cameras already deployed statewide are a much more concrete place to start than speculation about polling locations.

We'd rather see that energy pointed at real accountability: public records on who has access to ALPR data, audit logs, and retention limits. Check our camera map to see what's already watching your own neighborhood, and if you want to push back, our take-action page has steps for raising this with your local council before the next budget quietly renews a Flock contract.