That's the number of counties that elections will be held in for the March 4th primary.
A bit of info there:
In Texas, like in other states, the political parties run the primaries and if a county does not have a party chairman that party cannot have a primary. Armstrong, Hansford and Roberts do not have Democratic Party chairmen.
In the Republican camp, 17 counties in Texas do not have Republican chairmen, including Hall and Hardeman. This means that voters in those two counties can only vote in the Democratic primary.
Back in 2004, Hall County gave 66% of their votes to Bush. Hardeman county gave 71% of their votes to Bush.
But the three counties without Democratic chairmen (at the time of the deadline) gave Bush over 85% of the vote in 2004.
Another piece of good news, Ochiltree is having their first Democratic primary since 2000. Hansford has a new chairman (Frosty Hickerson.. not making that name up) and they'll be holding their first primary since 1996 in the year 2010.
So it's like a rebuilding program.. in a sense. But where else will Republicans not be able to vote on March 4th?
The Republican Party of Texas lists vacancies in the chairmanships of these counties: Brooks, Dickens, Frio, Hall, Hardeman, Hudspeth, Kent, LaSalle, Loving, Reeves, Throckmorton, Upton, Zapata, and Zavala.
That's 14 of the 17 counties mentioned in the article. As for the other 3, I can't tell you for sure. Odds are that they'll be around South Texas, where the Republicans have never really done much to build a party infrastructure.
Back in 2006, Republicans held primaries in 238 counties. The counties holding a primary then that aren't holding one now are Kent County (where 6 people voted in the 2006 primary) and Reeves County (turnout of 4 people in 2006).
In Upton County, there'll be no Republican primary, despite Bush posting 84% of the vote in 2004 (a 1009 to 185 victory).
Previous scores for our side:
2006: 249 (Armstrong, Glasscock, Hansford, Ochiltree, Roberts)
2002: 251 (Hansford, Ochiltree, Roberts)
2000: 253 (Hansford)
(I think the total was 250 in 2004, but Leip's site is sorta messed up there)
So, in Texas, our score is 251 and hopefully that'll hit 254 in 2010.
Three cheers for the insignificant red counties where Democrats won't just have a choice, but the actual ability to make a choice, on March 4th!