Election Day today

For the however many of you that haven’t voted yet, here’s a message from County Clerk Stan Stanart:

4,500 Election Judges and Clerks are prepared to receive voters on Election Day, Tuesday, November 5, at the 775 locations throughout Harris County. This Election will be the first Election in which Photo ID will be implemented at the Election Day polls.

“In preparation for Election Day, poll workers have been trained on the new Photo ID requirements and are ready for voters to cast their ballots,” said Harris County Clerk Stan Stanart, the Chief Election Officer of the county. “Election Day should go as smoothly as the Early Voting Period.”

Early voting brought 109,370 voters to the polls, the largest number of early voters in an odd numbered November Election in the history of Harris County. Of those voters, there were very few provisional ballots cast due to voters not presenting proper photo identification. The unofficial Early Voting tally of current registered voters with ID issues shows six who presented expired/suspended TX DPS IDs, two who presented out of State IDs, and nine who did not present any photo ID. These voters and any from Election Day, will have until November 12th to present a valid Photo ID to the Voter Registrar, so that their ballot can be counted.

“As the Chief Election Official, I have great confidence in voters,” expressed Stanart. “I am not surprised by voters being prepared to comply with the photo identification requirement.”

Voters are now required to provide one of the seven types of Photo IDs when voting in-person. The state approved photo identification for voting includes:

· Texas Driver License issued by the Texas Department of Public Safety (DPS)

· Texas Election Identification Certificate issued by DPS

· Texas Personal Identification Card issued by DPS

· Texas Concealed Handgun License issued by DPS

· United States Military Identification Card containing the person’s photograph

· United States Citizenship Certificate containing the person’s photograph

· United States Passport

With the exception of the U.S. Citizenship Certificate and some Military Identifications, the ID must be current or have expired no more than 60 days before being presented at the polling place.

“If you have not done so, I encourage you to go vote,” concluded Stanart. “Be sure to bring your photo ID to the poll; and, remember, on Election Day, you have to vote at the precinct where you are registered to vote.

To obtain a list of Election Day polling locations or to view a voter specific sample ballot, voters can visit www.HarrisVotes.com or call 713-755-6965.

I don’t have the faith Stanart has that Election Day will go as smoothly as Early Voting did, but that’s neither here nor there at this point. Bring your ID, be prepared to sign an affidavit, and under no circumstances leave without voting.

There have been a couple of articles in the Chron the past few days about the Mayor’s race and various issues. I haven’t written about them, partly because there have been so many other things to write about, partly because they were things I’d discussed in one form or another previously, and partly because if you’re just tuning into the issues now, I don’t know how much difference those stories would make anyway. I will note that on the heels of being names to President Obama’s climate change task force, Mayor Parker received President Obama’s endorsement in the race, for whatever effect it will have at this late point. I don’t know what will happen in the Mayor’s race, but I do know that whatever does happen, Rob Ford will not be our Mayor, and I think we can all agree that that is a good thing.

Beneath the fold is a listing of all the Election Night watch parties that I have emails about or otherwise was able to find without too much effort. If I’ve missed one that you know about, please leave the details in the comments. Thanks, and I’ll be back later tonight with some results.

UPDATE: Texpatriate has a good list of watch parties, too.

Election Night watch parties

Mayor Parker – George R. Brown Convention Center

Ben Hall – House of Dereon, 2204 Crawford St.

Ronald Green – Social Junkie Sports Bar & Grill, 2412 Washington Ave

David Robinson – Art Attack, 626 W. Cavalcade

Roland Chavez – Hefley’s, 138 West Gray

Jenifer Pool – FBar, 202 Tuam

Rogene Gee Calvert – Kim Son Restaurant 2001 Jefferson St

Michael Kubosh – Cafe 4212, 4121 Almeda

Roy Morales – Taqueria Tepatitlan, 4720 N. Main

Brad Bradford – Canyon Creek Bar & Grill, 6603 Westcott

Helena Brown – Boudreaux’s Cajun Kitchen, 9774 Katy Freeway

Brenda Stardig – The home of Norma and Victor Alvarez, 7817 Betty Jane

Mike Knox – Cafe Adobe at Marq*E Center, I-10 at Silber

Jerry Davis – Mr. A’s The Club, 3409 Cavalcade

Dwight Boykins – George T. Nelson Park

Assata Richards – The home of Rick Lowe, 2222 Truxillo

Graci Garces – Lucky’s Pub, 801 St. Emanuel

Anna Eastman – D & T Drive Inn, 1307 Enid

Hugo Mojica – Fiesta en Guadalajara, 3522 Irvington

Harvin Moore – Chuy’s, 2706 Westheimer

Anne Sung – El Gran Malo, 2307 Ella Blvd

Zeph Capo – El Gran Malo, 2307 Ella Blvd

Related Posts:

• A wrapup for early voting
• Election Day: Get yourself to the polls
• Mail ballot update