It's election day here in Texas. I voted, just as I did on primary day in May, in an empty polling place, although a few voters were wandering in as I was leaving.
Today was the primary election run-off, so it's a small ballot, although both parties have run-offs for Senate (which I wrote about yesterday over at PP). All told, my ballot had only five choices. Not bad: U.S. Senate, one judge, the county sheriff, and the county tax assessor-collector. Plus a "Precinct Chairman" (sic; this is Texas, after all). So I sort of know what most of those jobs do. Not bad!
I should stick this somewhere...I finally did wind up seeing a few ads in the Senate Republican race -- they've spent a ton of money, but whether it's the shows I watch or that I have the dish and not local cable or whatever, I don't see a lot of ads. In fact, I saw two Obama ads on TV before my first Texas ad. But I did finally see, and also hear on the radio, Nolan Ryan pitching for David Dewhurst. Both, I think, on Rangers broadcasts, so that makes sense. I don't know what Dewhurst was running elsewhere; I can't bring myself to watch the local news to find out. I'm expecting a big Cruz blowout tonight, but we'll see.
Back to voting; this was the third election day for my precinct this year, with a total of 43 choices so far. Four election days in the two-year cycle, with 45 total votes cast. Still running well behind the previous cycle, and still doesn't look as if we'll hit 100 choices, and unless there's one coming up I don't know about (which certainly could be the case) we won't match the five election days from 2010.
As always, I find voting a great occasion for patriotism, and wish all the candidates good luck.
Tuesday, July 31, 2012
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As always, I find voting a great occasion for patriotism, and wish all the candidates good luck.
ReplyDeleteAnd, as always, I find these posts terribly depressing. 45 votes in two years. Empty polling places. Pride about sort of knowing what most of the elected officials do. Confusion about whether there are more elections coming up, or not. And this is from a political scientist.
It just can't be a good way to run a democracy.
Fun Fact: By the end of this election cycle, the city of La Crosse, Wisconsin will have had 12 separate elections.
ReplyDeleteAs you know, I agree that we vote on too many things.
ReplyDeleteAnother big part of this is the lack of local news. I read the local newspaper every day, but there's rarely anything about local politics...we've had a fair amount of coverage of Cox/Dewhurst. There's one local US House race and one local state leg race that also got some coverage. As far as the run-offs, that was pretty much it.
As I said, I can't bring myself to watch local news, so I don't really know, but I would be surprised if there's anything helpful there. And if there's anything else around here that's worthwhile, I certainly don't know what it is.
Just got done voting myself. Polling place was also empty, though my precinct is (probably) majority African American, so I wouldn't expect turnout to be as heavy since there's not much going on on the Democratic side. I myself voted Republican today despite being a party line Democrat - it's my best chance to affect who will represent me in the Senate.
ReplyDeleteRegarding coverage, I don't watch local news so I can't add anything on that side of things, but the local public radio station carried several candidate debates, including one between Sadler and Yarborough. What abysmal candidates! Is this the best the Texas Democratic Party can do? I've also heard radio spots for all 3 Republicans (including Leppert when he was around). I heard the Nolan Ryan spot somewhere on I-35 near Waco and have been getting hammered with Dewhurst spots here in DFW.