InsideOut at City Hall

by Annise D. Parker

VOTE IN ADVANCE
Make your voice heard early in city elections
Friday, October 31 is:
a. Halloween
b. Full moon
c. Last day of early voting for the November 4 city elections.
For those who jumped on the first choice, I applaud your enthusiasm. If you selected “c. early voting,” join the select ranks of Houstonians whose calendars change with political seasons.

The early-voting crowd has almost doubled in four years. The last governor’s race saw more than 150,000 Harris County voters early-vote, up from 85,000 in the 1998 governor’s race.

Houstonians can begin early voting Monday, October 20, for the November 4 city elections at 30 locations throughout the city.
Any registered voter can vote at any early-voting location. Why wait? One friend who always votes, and always votes early, didn’t vote absentee one year, got sick and spent election day in the hospital. I always try to vote early, just not on the first or last day. Last year, several friends hosted weekend early-voting parties and brunches so everyone could go ahead and vote together.

With 2 million residents, Houston has slightly more than 1 million registered voters. The last mayoral election prompted just 28 percent of them to go to the polls. This is an average turnout for city elections.
Here’s a scary thought: City elections are supposed to be nonpartisan. Some voters are surprised when they look at a city ballot and don’t see little R’s, D’s or I’s. These days, however, most voters know who is an R or D because they are inundated with campaign ads. It’s unfortunate. After all, there’s no such thing as a Republican or Democratic pothole. In county and statewide elections, where parties are listed, Republicans always do a better job of getting out their early voters (54 to 46 percent in 2002) and getting in their mail ballots (64 to 36 percent).

The county has been quite aggressive in tracking down voters who have moved in the past two years. In August, the county tax office mailed out more than 350,000 notices to voters after checking post office and driver’s license records against the voter roll and discovering that 359,105 registered voters now have different forwarding addresses or driver’s license addresses. A second notice went out if people didn’t respond to the first notice. So this may be the most accurate voter registration list in the history of the county.

Then again, people (and the postal service) make mistakes. You may be registered and may have even voted in the past year at your same old precinct. But when you go to your polling place, you may not be on the rolls. If that happens, polling place officials must offer you an affidavit allowing you to challenge the rejection. An ounce of prevention: You can check your voter registration status by calling 713/368-2200 or by visiting the Harris County Tax Office website at www.hcvoter.net to verify the status of your voter registration. For early voting information, see www.harrisvotes.org.

Mail-in ballots
Eligible voters still have time to request a ballot by mail as long as the county clerk receives the application seven days before the election—Tuesday, October 28.

Mail ballots may be used by voters:

• Who will be out of town during early voting and on election day
• 65 or older
• With disabilities which prevent them from visiting the polls
• In a hospital or nursing facility.

Applications can be printed out at www.harrisvotes.org/docs/app4ballotbymail.pdf.

Register for runoffs
As most of you know, voting requires that you register 30 days before an election, which means October 5. If you don’t read this column until after October 5, go ahead and register. There will be important runoff elections about a month after the November 4 election.

I leave you with these inspiring thoughts about voting:

“Bad politicians are sent to Washington by good people who don’t vote.” —William E. Simon, former secretary of the treasury

“Vote for the man who promises least.” —Bernard Baruch, financier and presidential adviser

“The vote is the most powerful instrument ever devised by man for breaking down injustice and destroying the terrible walls which imprison men because they are different from other men.” —Lyndon Johnson, U.S. president

Annise Parker, who is serving her third term in Houston City Council At-large Position 1, is a candidate for city controller. To receive her bi-monthly e-mail newsletter, contact annise.parker@cityofhouston.net or call 713/247-2014. Her website is www.ci.houston.tx.us/city govt/council/

THE 2003 VOTE
Click here for more pre-election coverage, including interviews with the mayoral candidates and the Houston Gay & Lesbian Political Caucus endorsements.

If you have any comments about this article, please email them to letters@outsmartmagazine.com.