Early Voting! Go-go-go vote :)

Not sure what or who is on the ballot?


Think there's no point to the Primary Election on May 29th?


Did you know there are referendums on the ballot about gambling, funding for colleges, and amnesty for the undocumented?


Learn more about the candidates and the positions they're running for by clicking on 2012 Primary Election Voter's Guide.


View a sample Travis County ballot by going to the Travis County Elections site.


And don't forget the May 12th Joint General and Special Elections! Click 'sample ballot' to view your choices before you head out to the polls.

Mission Possible

On the radar: Texas' March Primary

The March primary is a little over a month away! If you know someone who wants to vote but hasn't registered, February 1, 2010 is the last day to take care of business.

Tuesday March 2, 2010 -- Joint Primary Election

• Voter Registration Deadline: Mon., Feb. 1, 2010
• Early In-person Voting Begins: Tues., Feb. 16, 2010
• Early In-person Voting Ends: Fri., Feb. 26, 2010
• Contact Travis County Elections for vote by mail information at 238 VOTE

Click on Precinct Events to the left or view the election calendar on the Texas Democratic Party site for a list of voter & election dates you won't want to forget. Of course, another great resource is our county's election website.

So you haven't heard much about the candidates other than mud slinging between Perry and Hutchinson, or maybe you're not sure why the other offices are up for election matter much. Normally, I could refer you to the Texas League of Women Voters for a nifty voter's guide, but I haven't seen one for the 2010 primaries on their website yet. Nevertheless, you can see a list of all the offices up for election by visiting the Secretary of State. You can also see a sample ballot on the Travis County Clerk website.

Besides the more publicized races for Governor, Lieutenant Governor, Attorney General, and State Representative offices, we've got to decide which candidates are the best fits for a number of justice positions (e.g. Texas Supreme court, Court of Appeals, District Court, and County Court). A critical 2010 race that hasn't received as much air time is that of the State Board of Education. Next time I'll blog on why the race (I should probably say, races because there are several district SBOE positions open) for SBOE matters and what we can do to take our education system out of the hands of fundamentalists and into the hands of education-first leaders!

Have more questions than answers?
Just click on the link that matches the election/voter topic your interested in.

• Electronic voting
• Ballot by mail
• Military/overseas voters
• Student voters
• Accessibility issues
• Voter education
• Información para votantes

So much can happen in a week

From local tragedies to national legislative action so much has happened this week. A brief recap follows.

11/3: Election Results
Just under 4% of registered voters in our precinct cast their ballot in the November election. That's just under the county-wide voter turn out of 5%, but Precinct 307 (just west of Zilker) had a 17% voter turn-out! Wow, way to go PC 307!

Proposition 1 received 48% votes for, and 51% against. All other props passed by a large margin. Click election results for more info.

11/5: Tragedy at Fort Hood
Everyone by now has heard of Thursday's shooting that took 13 lives and wounded 30 at Fort Hood. Many have shown their support of the survivors and their families --donating blood and money. News8 reports on local memorial events scheduled for today and information on where to send donations.

Local memorial events
-- Sunday at 5 PM, at Killeen Civic and Conference Center
-- Monday, A local grassroots organization is asking everyone to drive with their headlights on to honor those directly or indirectly affected.• The Central Texas-Fort Hood Chapter of Association of the United States Army has set up a Community Response to 11/5 Fund for anyone wishing to make monetary donations to help support the families of the victims involved in Thursday's shooting at Fort Hood.

Donation Information
--Monetary donations can be sent to the Central Texas-Fort Hood Chapter of Association of the United States Army. Send checks to the attention of "Community Response to 11/5, P.O. Box 10700, Killeen, Texas 76547.
-- Barton Creek Square mall goers can pick up $1 wooden rose at Kay's Hallmark. 100% of the proceeds will be donated to the families of the victims of Ft. Hood.
-- Donations can also be sent to the Killeen Red Cross at 208 West Ave. A., Killeen, TX 76541.
-- Donations are tax deductible, click on News8 reports for more details.

11/7: Passage of House Health Care Bill
With a vote of 220 yeas and 215 nays, the United States House of Representatives passed the House version of the health care overhaul bill. The bill requires employers to offer health insurance and provide a public health insurance option to compete with for-profit insurance companies. It will reduce the percentage of uninsured Americans from 17% (today) down to 4% by 2019. Most of the a cost of the $1 trillion bill would go to help low- and moderate-income people purchase insurance (subsidies.) Now let's see what the US Senate ultimately churns out!





What will next week hold for us?

So easy a caveman can...,well you know

When I woke up this morning (at 2, 3, 4, 5, and finally 6 AM) I was feeling achy, tired, and queasy. In the delirium of the early AM hours, I thought "do I have the flying pig disease?" But as the sun began to shine through the blinds, I was determined to recover fast so I could check out the "How Will You Vote" event facilitated by David Kobierowski, TCDP Precinct 262 Chair and all-around dedicated Dem.

Thankfully, some fresh air, time with my dogs, a couple of over-the-counter meds, and lots of liquids had me feelin' back to 85%.

Constitutional Amendments Decoded












Today's Public Affairs Forum of Austin and League of Women Voters Forum was held at the First Unitarian Universalist Church (off of 47th and Burnet). It started at 11:30 and promptly ended at 12:30 --including 20 minutes of Q&A.

Senator Watson did a fantastic job of translating the propositions and fielding voters' questions. Rather than reinvent the wheel (and, because I'm still feeling under the weather), the following is an edited version of the descriptions from the last week's Watson Wire.

Proposition 1 would permit the Texas Legislature to let cities/counties acquire buffer areas next to military installations. *There're legal nuances to the way cities/counties can acquire such areas.

Proposition 2 makes it clear that Texans' homes can be appraised ONLY as a home. Right now a home could be valued as what it *could* be, say, if it could be turned into an office space -think gentrification.

Proposition 3 strengthens state oversight of a property appraisal board’s practices and procedures. Would reduce wide swinging variation.

Proposition 4 would use money we already have to help existing universities (e.g. University of Houston, Texas Tech, UT-Arlington, UT-El Paso, and others) become "tier-one" public research universities. UT and A&M are tier-one.

Want more info about this prop? The Center for Public Policy Priorities (CPPP) explains why the passage of Prop 4 is important for Texas -click brief.

And Proposition 5 allows adjoining appraisal districts or similar entities to consolidate their review board functions so they can be more efficient.

Proposition 6 would let the Veterans’ Land Board issue additional $ to help Texas veterans acquire land or get a mortgage loan.

Proposition 7 would clarify that members of the Texas State Guard (or similar groups) could hold civil offices such as justice of the peace or county commissioner.

Proposition 8 would clarify that the state can contribute money, property or other resources for a veteran’s hospital.

Most immediately, this would allow the state to help build a veterans hospital in the Rio Grande Valley, as required by a law that took effect earlier this year.

Proposition 9 would strengthen the state’s open beaches law by putting it in the constitution and clarifying that the public has the unrestricted right to use, and get to and from, public beaches.

Proposition 10 would lengthen the term of emergency services district board members from two to four years.

Finally, Proposition 11 builds on a current law limiting the ability of the state, or any other jurisdiction, to condemn and acquire property for economic development purposes through the use of eminent domain.

If you're left scratching your head as to which way to vote on these propositions, there's an easy to digest Voter's Guide (PDF) prepared by the League of Women Voters. As for me, after today's event I'm confident that voting yes on these props is the right way to go.

Like to be extra prepared? Get a sneak peak of the ballot.

Soo...now what?
As the title of this blog implies, voting early is oh-so-easy!

From Blogger Pictures

Find a polling place by accessing this interactive search feature on the Secretary of State's website. Travis County has a list of all the early polling locations.

Do you have unanswered questions about voting? Visit Travis County's voter and November 3rd election Q&A page.

Hope you can make it out to an early polling place!

After Halloween, there's voting!

Some of you may know that I graduated in August from UT's Master of Science in Social Work program. I can't tell you what a relief it is to not have to squeeze life in between work, school, and internship responsibilities. My time is mine again, and it has been wonderful!! The thing is, though, that I enjoy procrastinating with my time...sometimes. :0)

Why do I bring this up? Well, Halloween and the November 3rd election are around the corner and I still haven't bought any candy, have no clue how I'm going to dec-out the garage for neighbors, and haven't posted anything about the Constitutional amendments that'll be on the ballot. (Okay, so, the last one may not be as fun as getting the garage "halloween-y" but it's probably more important.)

November 3rd Ballot?
Now if you're asking yourself, "November 3rd ballot, huh?" Then we're both lucky! Because the Secretary of State website has a sample ballot and a downloadable PDF of the amendments. Plus, I recently learned that our very own Senator Kirk Watson will be leading a "How Will You Vote" meeting on Sunday, October 18th from 11:30 AM to 12:30 PM. I'll be tweeting from there and snapping a few pix for the blog. Hope to see ya' out there!

I still have it on my list to devote a blog to the what's on the ballot. But tonight, as I get ready to fly out to Harlingen at 6:50 AM tomorrow for work, I am pooped and ready to hit the hay.

State Board of Education
Another topic for a future blog is Texas' education system. Specifically, the knuckle-headed approach that has been taken by the Rs on the State Board of Education. I'll be posting soon about what the board has been doing and which board candidates to keep an eye on.

Health Care Reform Made Simply? Kinda' Sorta' Maybe Not Entirely
And, what would a post from yours truly be without something about health care?

The Kaiser Family foundation has new Side-by-Side Comparison tools, including a breakdown of the health care reform proposals before Congress.

The Commonwealth Fund has created an interactive US map you can use to view state-specific rankings and results of their 2009 health system State-by-State Scorecard. Texas moved up from 48th place in 2008 to 46th. Check out their website for details on what goes into the scoring matrix.

'K, nighty-night.