I was reasonably confident that the HISD bond referendum would be successful, mostly because there wasn’t any real opposition from officials or constituencies that would normally be expected to support it. It had a much smoother path than the 2007 referendum, which still managed to pass, so it wasn’t hard to see this one making it. I was still a little surprised at how easily it passed, but not that much. Here’s the breakdown by State Rep district:
Dist Yes No
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131 21,902 7,238
133 19,766 13,904
134 46,367 24,987
137 9,044 4,189
139 9,001 4,505
140 4,765 1,928
141 950 290
142 8,580 2,434
143 6,030 2,053
144 1,358 590
145 10,489 4,065
146 28,756 10,212
147 28,879 10,192
148 19,889 10,252
149 1,044 764
There are many school districts within Harris County, so there are a lot of State Rep districts that do not overlap HISD’s turf. Still, as you can see support was broad and across the board. One thing to note is that there were more Yes votes cast in just the six African-American State Rep districts (98,068) than there were No votes cast all together (97,604). You can see why the specter of people like Dave Wilson and his cohort opposing the referendum wasn’t a credible threat. There aren’t enough people like him within HISD’s boundaries to make a difference.
The HCC referendum naturally got much less attention, but it passed just as easily.
Dist Yes No
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131 24,797 8,582
133 18,409 14,514
134 41,702 27,900
137 13,029 5,695
139 7,984 5,016
140 4,631 1,972
141 7,724 2,695
142 9,550 2,813
143 5,715 2,119
144 1,280 611
145 9,837 4,393
146 27,998 10,756
147 27,070 10,895
148 17,825 11,498
149 17,911 7,302
HCC’s turf is HISD plus Alief and North Forest ISDs, which is why there are more votes in this election in HDs 137, 141, and 149 than the HISD referendum. Again, it passed easily everywhere, though with some slightly smaller margins than the HISD referendum. It also passed easily in Alief despite some early grumbling on the part of Alief ISD’s Board of Trustees. Anyway, not much to see here, just another easy day at the office for the people whose job it was to get these bonds passed.