“I don’t know” wins big!

Just as the Chron poll also asked about the Controller’s race, so did the recent KHOU poll, which went it one better and also asked about the At Large Council races. Not that this told us anything useful.

The poll, conducted by the Center for Civic Engagement at Rice University, reveals that registered Houston voters who describe themselves as likely to vote are unable to settle on a candidate in several major citywide races.

“Maybe what we’re seeing here is a complacency that leads to simply voting for incumbents,” said 11 News political expert Bob Stein, who conducted the poll. “Maybe complacency means simply not voting. And perhaps the turnout will be historically low.”

And maybe what we’re seeing is a bunch of people who have never voted in city elections but don’t want to admit that to a stranger on the telephone not having any idea about who to vote for in an election they weren’t going to participate in anyway. I mean, about 35,000 people in the city of Houston have already cast a ballot, which is maybe 15% of what the final turnout will be. These are people who know who they’re voting for. Maybe that’s who should be getting asked. I’m just saying.

Anyway. The poll has the Controller’s race as Green 12%, Khan 11%, and Holm 9%. None of the four contested Council races had as many as 20% of respondents give a definitive answer. I suppose you could say that C.O. Bradford, who had 11% to Noel Freeman’s 2%, and Council Member Jolanda Jones, with 11% to Jack Christie’s 3%, are “leading”, but I’d also say that as the sample of genuinely likely voters is probably a lot smaller than the number of people queried for this poll, the real margin of error is a lot higher than the 4.6% cited. Use these numbers at your own risk.

Related Posts:

This entry was posted in Election 2009 and tagged , , , , , , , , , . Bookmark the permalink.

3 Responses to “I don’t know” wins big!

  1. dewberry says:

    Am wondering if anyone else got the anti-Ron Green robocall yesterday. Supposedly from fellow democrats appalled by Ron Green’s tax issues. Repeated the tax evasion charges three times, but never identified the organization funding the calls; the call ended abruptly. Thought it highly deceptive.

  2. John says:

    What is deceptive about his tax issues? I agree the robo callers should reveal him or herself, but he has a $120K tax lien from the IRS. That just does not magically appear, the lien is from multiple yrs of not paying or massively underpaying what he owes the IRS. I just wish Ron would give a detailed explanation so we can all judge rather than just assume his silence means he is in the wrong. To say he is in negotiations is false, the IRS put the lien on him he has to pay that amount or lose his house or whatever other property they put it on. Please Ron just tell us in detail what happened so the voters can make an informed decision. 3 lines stating this is a dispute and he is working with the IRS is insulting to our intelligence

  3. Pingback: Eight days out: Spending on voter outreach by At Large candidates – Off the Kuff

Comments are closed.