Tag Archives: Houston Voter Apathy

HERO Election Results: Welcome to ‘HATE Town’?

So about last night.  Katherine Driessen of the Houston Chronicle has the formal wrap-up…

Houston voters soundly rejected the city’s embattled equal rights ordinance Tuesday in one of the most heated local political contests in recent memory that drew national scrutiny and sparked months of impassioned back-and-forth about social issues, particularly transgender rights.

The decision leaves Houston the only major city in Texas and one of the few nationwide without some form of a nondiscrimination law. It also marks the third time Houston voters have rejected protections or benefits for gay residents, as they did in 1985 and 2001.

The equal rights ordinance, known by its acronym HERO, would have extended local protections against discrimination to 15 groups, ranging from veterans to pregnant women to gay and transgender residents, with the latter proving the biggest flashpoint for conservative opponents of the law. In recent weeks, the contest played out on a national stage, drawing comments from the White House and top state officials as well as media attention from a slew of top outlets.

Critics pinned their campaign on the controversial claim that the law would allow men dressed as women, including sexual predators, to enter women’s restrooms. Opponents’ most talked-about ad featured a man bursting into a bathroom stall occupied by a young girl as ominous music played in the background.

So that’s what happened.  And here’s what you need to remember, whether you live in Houston, or somewhere else in the United States of America…

Houston , Texas is a city of 2.3 million people.  Of that robust and rapidly growing number, 1 million Houstonians are eligible to vote.

Just over 1/4th of those 1 million Houstonians showed up to vote on the Proposition 1 issue.  15.7 percent of those eligible to vote in Houston rejected HERO, and 10 percent of voters wanted to uphold it.  And getting over 1/4th turnout for an off/off-year election is considered “historically high”.

Voter Apathy folks… the struggle is real.

As was pointed out in an earlier post, even this 25.7 percent doesn’t give the best gauge of what our city actually thinks about HERO, as over half of those showing up were in the 65 or older demographic.  Voters aged 18 to 24 came in at under 2 percent of the electorate, and when combined with those 25 to 34, the two groups were still under 10 percent.   At age 59, Mayor Annise Parker herself isn’t even in the age demographic that basically made this decision.   We saw some things in 2014 that were very similar.

And by the way… many Houstonians in that 65 and up  bracket did support equality, so we definitely don’t want assume the values of everyone.  But the demographic information is important to know.

Far from being “haters”, what we had here were a lot of good-hearted, mostly Senior Citizen folks that saw egregious TV ads and reacted as to them as many would expect.  Given those facts and the very long history of equality measures being defeated when put up for a popular vote, last night’s result seems less of a surprise.

To the titular question… Houston has absolutely NOT turned into ‘Hate Town’.  More like “we’re not ready” town, and “we were the latest forced to endure the embarrassment of an equality popular vote” town.  

Until we figure out how to increase Civic Engagement for Houston, Texas and across the country, we’re going to deal with elections where good ideas and candidates are defeated by misinformation and malice.  So before we battle for a new vote, maybe it’s time to double and triple the education effort.

 

Where Are Houston’s Young Voters?!?!

So it’s an off, off year election with no President or Governor to be found on the ballot.  But so far, turnout for the 2015 Houston Municipal Elections is up.  Here’s KHOU with the details…

After one week of early voting, 61,008 people have already gone to the polls in Harris County. When you combine that with the 21,141 who have mailed in ballots, the county’s total early vote amounts to 82,149 with Election Day still more than a week away.

“It’s very clear that what we’re seeing is an uptick in turnout,” said Bob Stein, the Rice University political scientist and KHOU political analyst.

Given the high early vote, Stein predicts the total turnout for Houston’s city elections could reach 220,000 to 240,000 voters — a dramatic increase from the roughly 180,000 voters who cast ballots in 2009 when the city last elected a new mayor.

It is generally good news to have turnout increase for any election situation.  But the overall picture for early voting only tells part of the story.  When broken down by age group, turnout is expanding rapidly among older voters in Houston, while younger voters are all but absent from the polls.

And the phrase “all but absent” is not hyperbole.  Early Vote totals, broken into age groups by fellow blogger Erik Vidor, reveal the sad truth.  From October 19th through 25th, the first complete week of Early Voting, 56 percent of those that turned out to the polls were aged 65 and over, while just 1 percent were ages 18-24. And even when you add in the next age group of persons 25 to 34, you still only reach 5 percent of the total votes cast!!

TheOnePercent

(photo credit:  Erik Vidor via Facebook)

Umm, Houston’s young voters… where are you???

This is a national problem.  In a country where Millennials now outnumber Baby-Boomers, why have our nation’s youngest adults decided to let the older folks make critical decisions for them??

The answer most Millennials give?  They’re just too busy to vote.  Here’s how the Huffington Post summarized some data from 2014…

Young voters are more likely to say they are too busy to vote than the general population, an analysis by the Center for Information and Research on Civic Learning & Engagement (CIRCLE) at Tufts University finds.

According to CIRCLE, 33.5 percent of young voters who were registered said their schedules conflicted with their ability to vote in 2010, compared to 25.2 percent of voters above the age of 30.

Only 5.8 percent of young voters, defined as those ages 18 to 29, said they didn’t cast a ballot simply because they didn’t like the candidates, and only 2.1 percent said transportation problems stopped them from voting. About one in ten 18-29 year-olds said they simply forgot to vote.

NEWSFLASH fellow Millennials… these excuses are C-R-A-P.  If one has the time to stare at  Snapchat or Yik Yak for 15 minutes without noticing anything beyond the phone screen, they have time to vote.

Texas got a major dose of voter apathy in 2014. Sadly, the alarming trends of young people simply not caring to vote for anything or anyone continue.  But one has to wonder why this generation has become so removed from the institution of government.  Beyond ridiculous, this is now kind of scary.

Please do your part, and get to the polls for Early Voting or Election Day.  If you don’t know about the candidates, look them up or ask someone who is informed.  Don’t be part of the problem!!

VOTE