Election 2017 Begins Today!

Early voting for the 2017 election begins today. You get to vote on state constitutional amendments, school and college board elections, bonds, and probably other important stuff. This kind of election is the kind to which no one shows up–or, a small percentage of the voting population shows up. Some say your vote counts many times more than usual. I’m thinking democracy is in danger when so few show up and a lot is on the line.

Anyway…

ALIEF ISD

I did a small write-up about Alief ISD, since I live in it. My picks are as follows:  Position 4-Jesus Zamora; Position 5-NO PICK; Position 6-Jennifer Key; and Position 7-Natasha Butler. It’ll be good to see new faces on the Alief school board.

STATE AMENDMENTS

As far as the state amendments go, I can’t say any of them jump out at me. You see political expediency, playing of tax-cutting favorites with certain groups, benefits for the banking industry, and one particular item about political appointments. One in particular even sets up rules on when and how people can challenge the constitutionality of a law. The easiest thing for me is just to vote against everything. You do what you want.

Houston Bonds

The City of Houston is having a bond election. You can check out Lift Up Houston to read up on the pension obligation bonds to save the police pension, and the big dollar items ($490 million) the City needs to provide services to its population–fire station and police upgrades, parks, multi-service centers, etc.

The easiest thing is to vote FOR all of them. I may wait a few minutes on Prop A (Pension bonds) before clicking FOR (or not clicking anything)–since we were made to wait on joining the SB4 lawsuit on account of the pension stuff. Too bad I can’t postpone for two weeks. I’ll decide what to do when I walk up to the E-Slate.

HCC

My current HCC Trustee (District V) is Robert Glaser. He needs to get re-elected.

HISD

I don’t live in Houston ISD, but I certainly have a few favorite candidates: District I should vote Monica Flores Richart; District VI would be smart to keep Holly Flynn Vilaseca; District VII should keep Anne Sung; District V has a good candidate in Sue Dimenn Deigaard; and I’ll go with Jesse Rodriguez in District III.

Now, the League of Women Voters has a good resource in their voter guide to help you decide on amendments and candidates. Read up on the items on the ballot.

Find your early voting location here. Find your sample ballot here.

Get to it!