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October 29, 2007
A Low Turnout Affair
Today began the second day of early voting here in Harris County, as voters have an opportunity to decide on a number of state, county and school district ballot issues, including bonds and constitutional amendments. To boot, folks in the City of Houston have a (nominal) Mayor's race, and a number of City Council seats to vote on. So far, there seems to be little interest in the election.
Kuff was kind enough this morning to post the in-person early vote numbers through Sunday. As of yesterday, 15,792 folks had voted in person in Harris County. Compare that total with 2005, when 24,132 in-person votes had been cast. So far, 2007 is running at 65% of the 2005 pace. Two years ago, about 332,000 ballots were cast in Harris County, 192,000 of those in the City of Houston. If the current trend holds, we'll see more like 216K votes countywide, and 125K in the City in 2007. That would put turnout in the neighborhood of 10% -- pretty low.
While Mayor White is running a few commercials, he faces no serious opposition. A high-profile mayor's race is the driver of turnout in odd-year elections in Houston, and the absence of a meaningful mayoral campaign has dampended interest in voting, to be sure. The only real mystery is whether or not White can best his 91% share of the vote from 2005. (We predict he'll fall a little short, but not by much.)
And while all 14 seats of City Council are also on the ballot, only a handful of real races are going on there. Open seats in District D (to replace term-limited Ada Edwards), District E (to replace Addie Wiseman), and District I (to follow Carol Alvarado) have generated contested, mulit-candidate races, at least two of which (in D & E) are likely to require a runoff. While a third candidate is in the District I race, basically it's a two-man race between Alvarado's former Chief of Staff James Rodriguez and John Marron, who is backed by Labor and Harris County Commissioner Sylvia Garcia.
There is one real contest for an At-Large seat -- #5 to replace the outgoing Michael Berry. There are several candidates here, and a runoff is expected, though who will make that runoff is the subject of considerable speculation among local election watchers. Most expect Jolanda Jones, an attorney and former Survivor contestant, to claim one of the runoff spots. The second spot seems very much up for grabs, with Jack Christie, Tom Nixon and Zaf Tahir all in the running to make the finals.
Then there are the bonds -- state, local and school -- which dominate the ballot. A handful, such as the statewide cancer bond and the local HISD issue, have gotten a fair amount of attention, much of it not positive in HISD's case. The HISD race looks to be close and could go either way, as does the family law center county issue, but most of the rest should pass.
Early voting continues through Friday of this week -- locations and hours available here -- and Election Day is next Tuesday, November 6th. Do your civic duty and cast a ballot.
Posted by houtopia at October 29, 2007 10:21 PM