Warm up the remote control, pour yourself a glass or two of your favorite red, bake some cookies for stress eating — it's finally election time, and tonight we could learn how history itself will be written.

Why it matters: All the votes will be cast by this evening. Polls close in Texas at 7pm.

Between the lines: With very likely more than half of total Texas voters casting early ballots, the biggest tell will be early voting returns, which county election officials can release after polls close.

• "It's hard to see how anybody behind in early voting wins on Election Day unless it's very, very close," Texas-based national GOP consultant Matt Mackowiak tells Axios.

Yes, but: Early voting may be more telling in urban and suburban areas than in rural ones, which may have only one polling place, Mackowiak warns.

Zoom out: In the race pitting Republican U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz against Democratic U.S. Rep. Colin Allred, Mackowiak will be looking at "eight to 10 battleground counties" in Texas — including Montgomery and Waller near Houston; Tarrant, Denton and Collin in the Dallas-Fort Worth area; and Williamson and Hays outside Austin.

• "The expectation is that Cruz will get killed in the urban counties," Mackowiak says. "I'll be looking at what's happening in that second tier."
• "And then in the border counties, in which Trump is hoping to perform well with Hispanics, does Cruz benefit from that? How much will he?"

Hang tight: We may not know the results of the presidential race until Thursday at the earliest.

The bottom line: "It's going to be a long night in general, but a little shorter in Texas," Austin-based political strategist Ed Espinoza tells Axios.

Read the rest

Texas is suing the U.S. Department of Justice over federal monitors deployed to observe elections in the Lone Star State.

The big picture: The lawsuit, filed by Attorney General Ken Paxton late yesterday, asks a federal judge to block DOJ personnel from "being present at voting locations and central count stations in the 2024 election."

The latest: A federal judge denied Paxton's request early today, per Reuters.

Catch up quick: The DOJ announced Friday it will send federal monitors to polls in 86 jurisdictions in 27 states Tuesday, including Harris County and other communities across Texas, acting on its duty to ensure voting rights are fulfilled nationwide.

• Later Friday evening, Texas Secretary of State Jane Nelson sent a letter to the DOJ pointing to a state ban on federal monitors at places where ballots are cast or counted.

What they're saying: "Justice Department monitors are not permitted inside a polling place where ballots are being cast or a central counting station where ballots are being counted," Nelson, a former Republican state senator, wrote in the letter.

Yes, but: Some Harris County Democrats, who called for the DOJ to monitor Harris County in the first place, say it could set up a test of federal authority.

• "You're trying to tell the federal government they have no business in a federal election? I don't understand that level of insanity," Rep. Gene Wu (D-Houston) said Monday.

Zoom in: Paxton's suit claims the DOJ has no authority to monitor elections in Texas and that "no federal law preempts Texas law," citing the DOJ's press release on the matter.

• In the lawsuit, Paxton's staffers note that the DOJ "has general authority to enforce certain federal laws" but said the press release did not detail any specifics.

State of play: The Texas secretary of state's office will deploy state inspectors to polling locations and vote counting centers in Harris County.

• The office announced the move in August after releasing its final audit report of the November 2022 election.

Go deeper

🔢 Harris County preliminary early voting numbers were off due to spreadsheet formatting issues. (KHOU)

✅ Houston Christian University plans to do a "direct admissions" pipeline where qualifying students are accepted before they formally apply in order to increase enrollment. (Houston Landing)

A former Harris County sheriff's sergeant was acquitted of murder after the 2022 killing of a shoplifting suspect. (Houston Chronicle)

The Houston Zoo has a new pygmy hippo to obsess over. 

Meet Akobi, a 4-and-a-half-year-old, 477-pound male pygmy hippopotamus who recently came from San Francisco as part of a breeding program. 

• He's settling in his new home next to the bongos. 

Why it matters: The cuteness of pygmy hippos is all the rage after Moo Deng, the beloved hippo from Thailand, charmed fans worldwide.

Fun facts: Pygmy hippos are considerably smaller than common hippos, weighing around 400 to 600 pounds and standing just 3 to 5 feet tall, compared to the massive 3,000- to 4,000-pound common hippos.

• Pygmy hippos forage mostly at night and can spend up to six hours a day feeding.