Voting Time In Houston

[southernhybrid]

No, I'm not Black, but I live in a majority Black city so I'm fortunate to have many Black friends and friendly acquaintances. I worked with lots of young Black women and helped two register to vote when Obama was running. A very close friend of mine who is Black always votes, but her middle aged children never voted until Trump was running. She convinced her children that voting was important so they finally decided to vote because Trump was such a racist etc. I've heard all kinds of excuses as to why people don't vote, or they only vote in the presidential elections. This is why I feel that voter apathy is worse then voter suppression.

When I vote in person, at least half of the poll workers are Black women, and at least half of those in line are usually Black, although more Black people are voting absentee, so they can avoid dealing with lines. In my county, we only have one place to vote if we vote early, but I've never waited more than 20 minutes when I've voted early. So, I don't think one has to be Black to discuss this issue with other people who are Black. Most of the Black people I live are very friendly and willing to talk about these issues with me.

I agree that it's worse in places like Atlanta, a Black majority city. One year when Stacey Abrams was running for governor, she never received her absentee ballot so she had to wait in line to vote. So, any large urban area is always going to have longer lines, regardless of the dominant racial makeup. When you have a county with almost a million people, of course, it's going to be more difficult to prevent long lines. That is why so many people have started to vote by mail if they live in urban areas. People I know who live in rural areas have told me that they have never had to wait in line. That includes my friend and former member of IIDB, Jobar. He says that he always votes on Election Day because there are never any lines where he lives. Well, duh. There aren't many people in his county, so of course, there are never long lines.

 

[bilby]

any large urban area is always going to have longer lines

That's simply not true. Any large urban area has adequate resources to have larger numbers of places to vote, and/or larger capacity at existing voting locations, than are available in rural areas.

It's trivially easy to arrange to have the same maximum number of voters per (location/staff member/ballot box/voting machine) everywhere, whether urban, suburban, or rural, with that number set low enough that queuing is kept to a very low level.

It might be slightly more expensive than allowing lines to form (though it's probably a lot cheaper overall when you consider the value of the individual voter's time); But voting isn't a sufficiently frequent event that the expense is worth worrying over - the cost per election may be quite high, but the cost per annum is low, and if you value democracy, well worth paying.

 

[southernhybrid]

any large urban area is always going to have longer lines

That's simply not true. Any large urban area has adequate resources to have larger numbers of places to vote, and/or larger capacity at existing voting locations, than are available in rural areas.

It's trivially easy to arrange to have the same maximum number of voters per (location/staff member/ballot box/voting machine) everywhere, whether urban, suburban, or rural, with that number set low enough that queuing is kept to a very low level.

It might be slightly more expensive than allowing lines to form (though it's probably a lot cheaper overall when you consider the value of the individual voter's time); But voting isn't a sufficiently frequent event that the expense is worth worrying over - the cost per election may be quite high, but the cost per annum is low, and if you value democracy, well worth paying.

I'm in favor of your solution, but I doubt it will happen here, as we've had long voting lines for as long as I can remember. I remember voting for Jimmy Carter, while living in a small town in Virginia and waiting in line for well over an hour. The county I lived in was using paper ballots, btw. Here in Georgia, the machine prints out a paper ballot for us to review before putting in a box. I like that, but it tends to slow things down too.

It's probably because the US refuses to spend the money on the type of corrections necessary to do what you think we should. Plus each state has different voting rules and times etc. It's a mess. All I know is that it's easy to vote here and if you live in a large city and don't want to wait in a long line, request an absentee ballot.

Some states don't even have voting in person any longer. It's all absentee, so maybe that's where we are headed. That would certainly eliminate long lines. On second thought, the Republicans don't like that idea, so it will probably never happen.

But, I have no power over this, so you don't need to keep telling me what we need to do. We already have too much division as to how we should vote.

 

[southernhybrid]

We voted yesterday. It took about 5 minutes. We were the only ones at the voting place and the women working the poll were delightful, joking with us etc. The sad thing is that on the 4th day of early voting, only 345 people have voted so far. That is why I believe that voter apathy is a much bigger problem here compared to voter suppression. A very close Black friend of mine voted on Wednesday without any problems. She lives outside the city limit so she could only vote for the penny sales tax that will all go to educational things to help improve our schools.

 

[T.G.G. Moogly]

I mailed my ballot in a couple days ago. When I used to vote at the polls we had ridiculously low turnout on these elections. I actually skipped one of the elections so they would stop calling me to take surveys. If you don't miss any votes you get designated as some kind of super voter and it can become a real pain in the ass.

 

[Cheerful Charlie]

I just recieved my mail in ballot for the Houston runoffs. In Texas, straight ticket voting is now illegal. And elections are "non-partison". So I googled for the official GOP recommendations and voted against all Republicans on the ballot. Monday, it is in the mail. Sneaky lil bastards!

 

[Rhea]

This is why I feel that voter apathy is worse then voter suppression.

I firmy believe (and papers have been written that agree) that much of voter apathy *IS* deliberate voter suppression.

Every person, every blog, every newspaper that pushes the “both sides are just as bad” and “your votes won’t matter” are deliberately creating voter “apathy” in order to on-purpose suppress the vote.

….

I feel that long lines are completely avoidable, also. If it takes more workers and more machines, then they are worth it.

 

[Derec]

I just recieved my mail in ballot for the Houston runoffs.

I am curious; whom did you vote for mayor? Both runoff candidates are Dems.

 

[Cheerful Charlie]

Sheila Jackson Lee. She is uncompromissing and mean as a snake. With our moron GOP governor harassing Houston, we need a hard nosed mayor like SJL.

 

[Derec]

Sheila Jackson Lee.

I can't say I am surprised, but she is the wrong choice for Houston. She has been one of the dimmest bulbs in the chandelier that is the US House, and that chandelier is not exactly known to be dazzlingly bright in the first place.

She is uncompromissing and mean as a snake.

Being uncompromissing[sic] is not a good quality in an elected official. Especially a position like mayor, where getting stuff done is what matters, not ideological rigidity. And why do you think being a "mean girl" is a good thing?

With our moron GOP governor harassing Houston, we need a hard nosed mayor like SJL.

So you thought, why not have two morons go at it and see what shakes out?

 

[southernhybrid]

This is why I feel that voter apathy is worse then voter suppression.

I firmy believe (and papers have been written that agree) that much of voter apathy *IS* deliberate voter suppression.

Every person, every blog, every newspaper that pushes the “both sides are just as bad” and “your votes won’t matter” are deliberately creating voter “apathy” in order to on-purpose suppress the vote.

….

I feel that long lines are completely avoidable, also. If it takes more workers and more machines, then they are worth it.

I respect your opinion, but that's not the problem where I live. We have three full weeks of early voting, and anyone can vote by mail without a reason. Automatic registration is available when you renew your driver's license. Prior to these changes, there were lines, but unless you vote on the actual voting day and live in a large county, there are never any lines. Out of about 35,000 registered voters in my county, only about 2500 voted in our recent election this month. I've heard all kinds of silly excuses from people who never or rarely vote. A good friend of mine finally convinced her two middle aged kids to vote for the first time in their lives in 2020, so they could vote against Trump. She has always voted in every single election since she was old enough and most of my friends in my age group have usually always voted as well. Unless things change, it's very easy to vote in Georgia.

It's much harder to vote in many parts of the Northeast. I think New Jersey only recently started having early voting, for example. I'm not familiar with the voting laws in New York, but I agree if the lines are insanely long and if it's not easy to vote by mail and if there is only one day to vote, that certainly could be called voter suppression, by making voting a more difficult chore. Still, those of us who care enough about who is in charge of our government, "will crawl through glass to vote". I saw that line written many times in the comment section of WaPo, during the 2020 election, as people were very frightened of Trump getting a second term. Now look at where we are! "Idiocracy" is here.

Let me add:

I've never seen what you mentioned about blogs etc., but I agree if you're told that your vote doesn't matter often enough, that could lead to voter apathy. Most of the people I know who don't vote aren't aware of politics, and aren't very educated, to say the least. Most are also under 35, or they've come from difficult backgrounds, and have had a lot of stress and trauma in their lives.