Suddenly the election is upon us. Early Voting begins here in Harris County, Texas, on Monday, October 21. I put out a letter to my precinct already, but I thought I’d share most of that info here for people interested in getting more informed about their ballot.
I’m going mostly to HarrisCountyGOP.org (the Republican site for the county) and HarrisVotes.com (the County Clerk’s website) for information.
VOTER
INFORMATION
Early Voting starts Monday, October 21, and runs through
Friday, November 1. Hours are 7:00 AM to 7:00 PM daily except Sunday, October
27, 12 Noon to 7:00 PM.
Polling Locations: https://www.harrisvotes.com/Vote-Centers
This page allows you to toggle from Early Voting to Election Day. You can put
in your address to bring up locations near you. You can vote at any polling
location for both Early Voting and Election Day.
For Election Day, Tuesday, November 5, 7:00 AM to 7:00 PM.
Again, use the link to polling locations above.
Sample Ballot: https://www.harrisvotes.com/Voter/Whats-on-my-Ballot
The GOP recommendation is to vote early this year, preferably in the first week of Early Voting. This is against my normal pattern, but I plan to do it. (I do enjoy seeing many of my precinct voter at the polls on Election Day, though.) The reasoning is that you want to bank your vote; if you were to get sick or have an emergency come up on Election Day, you might miss your chance to vote. Also, campaigns will target voters who haven’t yet voted during that last week of campaigning. If you’ve already voted, they don’t have to spend time and money resources reaching out to you—which may mean you’ll get fewer texts and emails (one can hope).
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| The short version of my recommendations, plus there are some nonpartisan races at the bottom of the ballot. |
BALLOT
RECOMMENDATIONS
This year there is no question that we should vote
Republican TOP TO BOTTOM.
To highlight a few races, I strongly endorse Donald Trump for President and Ted Cruz for US Senate. (I was trying to get a post out about why good church-going Christians ought to vote for Donald Trump. I didn’t finish before this became more urgent. So that should come out early next week, rather than at the end of the week as is my usual pattern.)
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| I got this meme as a screenshot on my phone on September 2, probably on Facebook. I can't locate the source I got it from or the originator, but I like it. |
Our US Congressman for CD38, Wesley Hunt has had a
good voting record, and we should definitely keep him.
Lower on the ballot, after the judges, comes the Harris County District Attorney race; the DA is the prosecutor for the county. This is possibly (besides for president) the race most likely to affect our daily lives. Democrat DA Kim Ogg was not radical enough for the Democrats; she thought we were letting too many violent felons back out onto the streets—many on no-bail bonds. And she also didn’t rubber stamp corruption in the County Judge’s office. So the Democrats primaried her to put in Sean Terre, a truly radical anti-public-safety candidate. Fortunately, we have an extraordinary candidate in Dan Simons. We need him. If you’d like to hear his story, he spoke at the Cypress Texas Tea Party in July, which you can view here. His website is https://danforda.com/. (By the way, you can look for all candidate websites on the HCRP website here.)
%20Dan%20Simons%20at%20CTTP.png) |
| Dan Simons, candidate for Harris County District Attorney, screenshot from here |
Railroad Commissioner Christi Craddick has been
reliable, and we want to keep her.
For Texas Supreme Court, we vetted the candidates well in
the Primary (I wrote in more detail on these races in
February), so I endorse Republican candidates Jimmy Blacklock for Place
2, John Devine for Place 4, Jane Bland for Place 6.
Our state supreme court structure is divided into two parts:
The Texas Supreme Court covers civil cases and issues. The Court of Criminal
Appeals is essentially the Supreme Court for criminal cases. Again, I
endorse the Republicans: Gina Parker for Place 7, Lee Finley for Place 8.
Our State Senator for SD7, Paul Bettencourt,
continues to be an excellent representative for us.
For State Rep. for HD 138, Lacey Hull has been a
mostly reliable and sometimes strong conservative, and we definitely want to
keep her.
Then we get into more Judicial Races. Here are the Appeals
Court District races:
·
Jennifer Caughey for 1st Court of Appeals District, Place 2
·
Andrew Johnson for 1st Court of
Appeals District, Place 6
·
Clint Morgan, 1st Court of Appeals
District, Place 7
·
Kristin M. Guiney, 1st Court of
Appeals District Place 8
·
Susanna Dokupil, 1st Court of
Appeals District, Place 9
·
Chad Bridges, 14th Court of
Appeals District, Place 3
·
Tonya McLaughlin, 14th Court of
Appeals District, Place 4
·
Maritza Michele Antu, 14th Court
of Appeals District, Place 5
·
Katy Boatman, 14th Court of
Appeals District, Place 6
·
Brad Hart, 14th Court of Appeals
District Place 8
I won’t list all the district judges. There are many. These are the court judges within Harris County. I will highlight Michael Landrum, who has been a judge before and has been reliably conservative for a very long time. We want him back in. Video of him and two others, Lee Kathryn Shuchart and Brian Staley, speaking at the Cypress Texas Tea Party in July is here.
There are a handful of races in which we did not get a
conservative candidate. Only a Democrat appears on the ballot. It won’t make a
difference, but I am leaving those blank on my ballot.
There are a few other county offices:
·
Jacqueline Lucci Smith for County Attorney
·
Mike Knox for Sherrif (his talk at the
Tea Party during the Primary season is here)
·
Steve Radack for County Tax
Assessor-Collector
·
Danielle Dick for Harris County School
Trustee, Position 3, At Large
·
James Lombardino for Justice of the Peace,
Precinct 5, Place 1 (Tea Party video from January here)
· Terry Allbritton for Constable, Precinct 5
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| last half of page 4 of the ballot |
NONPARTISAN
ISSUES AND RACES
At the very bottom, there are some nonpartisan things on
the ballot.
Harris County Flood Control District, Proposition A:
this raises property taxes to $0.04897 per $100 of property valuation, a right
of $0.01581 per $100. The purpose is to maintain infrastructure, not to build
new infrastructure. This wasn’t on my radar until I looked at my sample ballot.
I’m leaning toward voting against, because I’m against any tax increase,
pending further information. I’m asking around to make sure I’m not missing
anything.
Lone Star College Trustee
· District 1: Michael (Mike) Stoma spoke at the Cypress Texas Tea Party meeting October 17. No video, but I was there and got to hear him. He is the incumbent, and has served as the board president in the past term. They have a budget surplus and have been working well with Cy-Fair ISD to bring dual credit programs, including many certifications, to high school students. He has my vote.
· District 2: I do not know either candidate in this race: Daniel “Danny” Meza or Ernestine Pierce. She is the incumbent, having served the past 6 years. Info on both here. He links to a Facebook page with no posts. She links to her website, here. While I’m not endorsing, I expect to vote for Ernestine Pierce.
· District 3: Mike Sullivan is unopposed. I would vote for him, if there was a way to do so.
Harris County Emergency Services District 9
·
This is the very last race on the ballot. In
this race, vote for none, one, or two candidates. The board handles our fire
stations in the area. Harris County Republican Party Local Government has
endorsed Jaime H. Martinez and David Farrington. Jaime was a potential
school board candidate last year. He’s reliably conservative, although he didn’t
reach the top four candidates we were vetting. I’m happy to see him find another
way to serve the community. And David Farrington is a long-time local conservative.
I served with him on the SD7 Platform Committee last spring. They both get my vote.
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