Happy Tuesday! It's Election Day.

🌧️ Today's weather: Chance of showers and thunderstorms, with a high in the mid-70s.

🗳️ Know what matters this election. Become a member and support local reporting.

Today’s newsletter is 904 words — a 3.5-minute read.

Aline Garcia Weinheimer, who votes Democratic, and her husband, Bruce, who votes Republican, have a deal in their southwest Austin home: She watches broadcast news starting at 5:30pm and he gets to take over the remote at 7pm for Fox News.

Why it matters: In this partisan era, many Austinites can't stomach the idea of living with someone who has opposite voting predilections — yet a small portion of Travis County households include at least one member who votes differently from the others.

• Sometimes it's a husband and wife who span the political divide; sometimes it's voting-age children who vote differently from their parents.

What we found: At least 1 in 70 Travis County households that voted in the March primary are politically split.

• Women in these households are nearly three times more likely than the men to vote Democratic.

What we did: Through a request under the Texas Public Information Act, we obtained Travis County voting records from the March primary to search for split-party households.

• We sorted for voters who shared the same last name and address but voted in different primaries. (While it's not public information who you vote for, it is public information which primary you voted in. Also public information: the sex voters volunteer on their registration forms.)
• Caveat: Our sorting method doesn't capture families with different last names — so there are likely more split-party households in Travis County.

What they're saying: The Weinheimers were both Democrats until Bruce Weinheimer discovered talk radio — Rush Limbaugh specifically — decades ago, his wife says.

• "We do not talk politics," Aline Weinheimer tells Axios, but their relationship remains loving — they were planning on spending their 45th wedding anniversary in Portugal.
• "We show up at the polls for every voting opportunity, believing it is our civic duty, even though we know we cancel each other out," she says.

Austin's split-voting households run counter to how Americans are increasingly organizing themselves.

The big picture: The places where we live, pray and work are increasingly crowded with people who think and vote as we do, the formerly Austin-based journalist Bill Bishop observed in his groundbreaking 2008 book, "The Big Sort."

• Researchers have found that people of opposite political parties avoid dating one another, avoid living near one another and worry about their offspring marrying someone outside their party.

Zoom in: In Oak Hill, Gordon Falk, an evangelical Christian who runs a learning center, tends to vote differently from his wife, Milaka Falk, who works at the University of Texas.

• "In a good and loving relationship you call each other out on stuff," Milaka says, describing the influence working at the university and her exposure to LGBTQ+ communities — and the feeling that her gender "is being attacked in health care" — has had her on her increasingly Democratic politics.
• She "is a softening influence" on me, he says.

The intrigue He voted, as usual, in the Republican primary in March — specifically to vote against Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton in the U.S. Senate race, he said.

• He said he's likely to vote for state Rep. James Talarico (D-Austin), this general election.

Share this story

Family members told the Palm Beach Post that Austin entrepreneur Adam Robinson, his wife Helen Sharp and their two kids were among the victims of the plane crash in South Florida on Sunday. (People)

• One of the pilots has been identified by her family as 20-year-old Nathalia Filgueiras. (New York Times)

⚽️ Austin's Ismail Elfath, the world's most accomplished soccer referee, is retiring. (KUT)

🚗 The Capital Area Metropolitan Planning Organization launched an I-35 carpool program aimed at easing Austin commuter traffic. (San Marcos Record)

Don't toss that sticker. You can take it to these Austin spots for freebies and discounts:

🛍️ 20% off a purchase: Austin Pets Alive! Thrift

🐶 Free pet adoption: Austin Animal Services

🧘‍♀️ Free yoga class: Black Swan Yoga

🍪 Free cookie: Boni's

🍻 10% off your tab: Cheer Up Charlie's

🍷 Free drink: Flo's Wine Bar

🍿 Free popcorn: Hyperreal Film Club

🥞 Free pancake: Kerbey Lane Cafe

🌮 Free taco: Taco Flats

If the stress of watching election results roll in has you feeling some type of way, consider stepping outside.

The big picture: A new study suggests spending time in nature can fight loneliness — even if you go it alone.

What they did: The study, published this month in The Lancet Regional Health, followed 320 adults experiencing loneliness in Barcelona.

• Half participated in weekly two-hour group outings to parks, gardens and other spaces for nine weeks.
• The rest received recommendations for free, accessible outdoor activities they could do on their own.

What they found: Loneliness scores dropped an average 10.5% after three months and nearly 17% after a year across both groups.

• Group outings were especially effective for participants who started out lonelier or with poorer emotional well-being.

What they're saying: Nature's sights, sounds and smells can help people relax and connect with others, professor Jill Litt, who co-authored the study, told CU Boulder Today.

• As some participants put it: "Nature doesn't judge you."

Thanks to Bob Gee for editing this newsletter.

👋 Asher returns today.

😳 Nicole can't stop thinking about "You Can See Everything."