Posted on 11/04/2003 10:23:46 AM PST by Dog Gone
Some Houston voters had trouble casting their votes in the city's mayoral race and light rail referendum this morning.
Those who showed up early at the Holiday Inn at 7787 Katy Freeway to vote found that the eSlate machines that were supposed to make voting so much easier and more accurate were on the fritz. While technicians made repairs, election judges passed out sheets of paper torn in half, along with sample ballots, and telling voters to write in their votes.
David Puckett said he sat down on the floor and spent 25 minutes scribbling down his choices while other voters just took the time to write in their votes on the top races before dropping their homemade ballots into a pasteboard box. He said an election judge told him to write on the back of the paper if he ran out of room and then told him he might need to vote again this afternoon if the eSlate machines come back up. Then, Puckett said, the judges decided a second vote wasn't such a good idea.
"They're making up rules as they go," he said. " It's unbelievable."
Elections officials were conferring this afternoon on whether to count the ballots written on scraps of paper, and that has Puckett worried.
"I will come back if I need to. I want my vote to count," he said. "It's my privilege. It's my duty. I want my people to win.
David Beirne, a spokesman for the Harris County Clerk's Office, said 12 machines at the hotel were improperly set up, with all linked to one defective unit, instead of having half linked to another in case of a glitch. The problem was quickly fixed, he said, but there were reports of one or two other polling sites with dead eSlate machines.
A volunteer working for the Urban League said voting equipment was down for about 45 minutes when the polls opened at the Greater New Hope Missionary Baptist church on Houston's northeast side, at Calgary and Bainbridge.
Voter advocate Frankie Young said some people who'd hoped to vote before work had to walk away without casting ballots because there were no paper ballots available when the machines went down.
"It's sad," she said. "It can get pretty discouraging for people if they came out and the machines aren't working. They could have at least had a replacement ballot."
Voters had few problems more serious than long lines at the vast majority of polling places, however. The polls are open from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m., and early voting turnout suggests stronger-than-usual interest in today's election.
Georgia Watkins, who visited three polling places this morning, said voting is a tradition in her family.
"I got a whole car full of voters," Watkins said, laughing as she drove family members from different parts of Houston to different precincts. "I got the job of chauffeur this year.
"My daddy's too old to drive, but not to vote," she said, adding that he's not the only family member in that situation.
"After, we all go to the coffee shop and get doughnuts," she said. "The kids were upset because I dropped them off at school first. They can't wait until they're old enough to vote, so they can go get doughnuts too."
Donna George said she encountered a short line of voters at Shearn Elementary on Stella Link when she arrived about 7:15 a.m., and all appeared to be running smoothly.
"There weren't nearly as many as there used to be," George said.
"I always voted on Election Day because it feels kind of exciting, like you're part of something much bigger," she added.
Voters today complete what likely will be just the first step in choosing a successor to term-limited Houston Mayor Lee Brown, and decide whether to expand a light rail system that may be Brown's biggest legacy.
Polls indicate that none of the three major mayoral candidates will claim a majority after today's voting, so the top two finishers will meet in a runoff, probably on Dec. 6.
Nine candidates will be on today's mayoral ballot, but the major contenders are former City Councilman Orlando Sanchez, state Rep. Sylvester Turner and businessman Bill White.
This morning White cast his ballot at the Katy Freeway hotel that was having eSlate problems. Arriving in a Lexus and sporting casual khakis, White downplayed today's glitches.
"It would be nice if everything worked the first time," he said. "Technology sometimes fails. I'm glad they had paper ballots."
For some, the vote on light rail is the most significant ballot issue. The Metropolitan Transit Authority is seeking approval of a transit referendum that includes money for roads, buses and light rail.
Voters in the Metro service area, which includes much of Harris and parts of Fort Bend, Montgomery and Waller counties, are being asked to approve a $640 million bond issue to pay for about 22 miles of additional rail to expand the 7.5-mile line nearing completion between downtown and Reliant Stadium.
After more than two decades of debate about rail, Brown started the initial line that is expected to be running shortly after Jan. 1.
A Houston Chronicle/KHOU TV poll released over the weekend indicated that White, who has emphasized his managerial skills as CEO of the Wedge Group investment consortium, is well ahead of Sanchez and Turner.
White, the former chairman of the Texas Democratic Party, has raised his profile with record spending of more than $6 million -- twice what Sanchez and Turner have spent combined.
Sanchez, who was defeated by Brown in a bitter 2001 mayoral runoff, has targeted his campaign toward Republican voters. He picked up last-second support Monday from President Bush, who encouraged support for Sanchez in a recorded telephone message.
He and White ran negative advertising, most aimed at each other, in the closing weeks of the campaign.
Turner, defeated by Bob Lanier in a 1991 runoff after the two eliminated incumbent Mayor Kathy Whitmire, has relied largely on televised debates and almost 100 forums to spread what largely has been a positive message about his own background.
Turner and White support the Metro referendum, while Sanchez opposes it.
Metro's referendum has sparked a particularly strident fight between pro-rail and anti-rail forces about an issue that has been debated in Houston since the late 1970s.
Referendum supporters argue that extension of light rail is a long-term approach to fighting traffic congestion and air pollution.
Rail opponents contend that the rail is a costly mode of transportation inappropriate for a sprawling metropolitan area like Houston's, and that money would be better spent building more roads and highways.
(Excerpt) Read more at chron.com ...
And then he made sure they couldn't vote on the way to work today.
Nah, Houston politics isn't corrupt, and Lee Pee Brown has been a terrific mayor.
Brings back memories of that lady singing, "Seventy-seven seventy-seven Katy Freeway..."
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