Article snapshot taken from Wikipedia with creative commons attribution-sharealike license.
Give it a read and then ask your questions in the chat.
We can research this topic together.
This template's initial visibility currently defaults to autocollapse, meaning that if there is another collapsible item on the page (a navbox, sidebar, or table with the collapsible attribute), it is hidden apart from its title bar; if not, it is fully visible.
To change this template's initial visibility, the |state=parameter may be used:
{{Elections in Texas footer|state=collapsed}} will show the template collapsed, i.e. hidden apart from its title bar.
{{Elections in Texas footer|state=expanded}} will show the template expanded, i.e. fully visible.