Voters Voting

We know the Chief Justice and Justices of the Supreme Court watch and read the news. That is why they came up with a code of ethics. Now it needs an enforcement mechanism.

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On my take yesterday on Dumb Dems, I should have mentioned that we have this problem because the Harris County Judge and Harris County District Attorney, both Democrats, have not gotten along in years. What a shame.

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A few years ago, Harris County Clerk Diane Trautman instituted the voting center concept in Harris County. On Election Day, you can now go vote anywhere on Election Day, just like you can vote at any early voting location during the early voting in person period.

Prior to the change, if you waited to vote on election day, you had to go vote at the polling location in your geographic precinct. Just about every precinct had a polling location. Some smaller precincts were combined.

This story put out by the Chron yesterday is in my humble opinion a disserve to the community. Here is a part:

On election day this year, about a quarter of the county’s 701 polling places served fewer than 100 voters — or only a few voters per hour — but they still required full staffing and resources. The county has decreased its total number of election day polling places in recent elections, but some say there is still room to cut. 

That is a complicated undertaking, (Bob) Stein said. Many other factors go into the complex political stew of determining how many polling places the county should have and where they should go — factors like voter happiness, accessibility and other logistical considerations.

Here is the entire Chron read: Does Harris County have too many polling places? (houstonchronicle.com).

It has been said by voting experts that Texas is probably the most difficult place for voters to vote.  We need to make voting as easy and accessible as possible during the early voting period and on election day.  We need to give voters time to get used to voting systems and locations in Harris County.

All the Chron story is going to do is rile up the GOP and naysayers to push for reductions in voting centers during the early voting period and on election day.

Give it some time so voters can get used to the system so they can get their friends and family to participate. Let’s give it a few elections over the next few years to grow voter turnout.

Bad move, Chron. We don’t need our local newspaper contributing to voter suppression.

The featured photo is a reminder that the runoff election is in 24 days.

The Harris County Clerk’s office sent out the final unofficial results yesterday and they still don’t have vote totals for Precinct 65. Oh, well.

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Let’s see. The Texans would be in the playoffs if the season ended today.

The Rockets are in fourth place in the NBA’s Western Conference.

The Dynamo are in the playoffs.