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What if they held an election and no one came out to vote? Now that is a scary thought. However, it is very close to reality in this year’s elections.

Voter turnout numbers in early vote locations are low. Most pundits are comparing them to the 2009 elections where we had a heated Mayor’s race on the top of the ballot and noting a significant drop in voter turnout. However, an important note is that turnout in that election was low, embarrassingly so.

What is it with you voters in Houston? Recently, I was serving on a panel and was discussing the anticipated low voter turnout. A person in the audience said that turnout is low because people are satisfied. I guess that is one way of looking at it but really, people, this is ridiculous.

How about the “my vote doesn’t matter” theory? In city elections, races have been won with fewer than 50 votes. In a race like District B with 10 grass-roots candidates, every single vote matters significantly. It is likely that the margin between the top finishers will be razor thin.

Folks, we are guaranteed to elect 5 new Council Members due to term limits and two new additional seats. At-Large 5 with incumbent Jolanda Jones is a hotly contested race and all but one of the incumbent City Council Members has opponents.

You know what is really scary...the default of democracy. We live in a democracy and have a representative government. Half way around the world, people are sacrificing their lives for the right to select their own leaders and then doing so.

Yet, at home, we are too lazy to get up, cast a ballot and take ownership of our government.

I’ve voted. Have you?

Don’t be scared to cast your ballot...

This entry was originally posted at Nancy Sims' blog, Ponderings.

Today, we’ll review the types of groups that endorse and throughout the week, strive to answer the question, “Do Endorsements Matter?”

It is the peak of the campaign season and organizations are issuing endorsements almost daily now.

Many trade and political groups engage in a lengthy, tedious process of determining which candidates to support in the elections. Their hope is that their membership will follow their recommendations and/or that others will be influenced by their decision.

The Houston Police Officers Union and the Houston Professional Fire Fighters Union are two significant endorsements. While many of their members may not live in the City of Houston, voters tend to take an interest in these recommendations from public servants. They have the impression that Police support means the candidate is strong on public safety. If fact, the endorsement usually means that the candidate will fight for the rights of Police Officers and Fire Fighters. As well, they have a fairly mixed track record on their choices.

Business trade groups endorse by the dozens. From the Greater Houston Builders Association to the Council on Engineers, the Greater Houston Restaurant Association and the Houston Association of REALTORS, they all screen candidates and select those they believe will do the best job to bolster business in Houston. The larger the endorsing organization, the stronger their endorsement will be. For example, the Houston Association of REALTORS has more than 20,000 members across the region and exceptionally large numbers in Houston. Their endorsement comes with financial support and volunteerism from their active members.

Many of the business groups provide financial support with their endorsement and an offer to distribute signs and campaign material.

Other groups that endorse are partisan organizations and cause-related groups, for example, the Houston Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual, Transgender Caucus, the “C” Club (stands for conservative), the Pachyderm Club and Asian-American Democrats. These groups tend to make their endorsements based on affinity with the group and in the case of partisan organizations, their alignment with party issues.

The final endorsement to consider is the Houston Chronicle. They issue editorials on their Opinion page and those began recently, earlier than in years past. For a candidate, it’s a great day when you get the endorsement and a truly awful one if you don’t. The success of this endorsement is usually in how the candidate utilizes it – to gain additional endorsements, raise more money and/or spread it on campaign material to bolster their reputation.

Next, we’ll assess the endorsement patterns for this election cycle.

This entry was originally posted at Nancy Sims' blog, Ponderings.

County government is one of those entities that few people understand and even fewer people notice.

If one mentions the “County Judge,” it usually requires an explanation that “no, he’s not a Judge but the County Executive.”

Every county in the State of Texas has one County Judge and four County Commissioners. It doesn’t matter if the county has less than 1000 people or as many as 5 million. The numbers stay the same. The County Judge is essentially the CEO but he/she has a very powerful Board of Directors.

In Harris County, the County Judge is actually somewhat less powerful than the four County Commissioners. Each Commissioner serves as essentially a Mayor for their precinct. They control road and bridge funds, parks, and most basic services. They have direct control over their budgets and have more money to spend than the County Judge.

Most county-wide decisions on budgets, operations and policy are set by the entire Court where the County Judge is reduced to one of five.

In Harris County these days, the Court is composed of four Republicans and one Democrat. While County Judge Ed Emmett is a Republican, he has difficulty in winning county reform votes he has advocated from his fellow partisan representatives.

However, for this day, the County Judge reigns supreme. He holds in his hand one of the most precious and treasured jobs in Harris County. The opportunity to appoint a new County Commissioner doesn’t come around very often. In fact, County Commissioners usually stay in office as long as they want or until something forces them out.

The rare exception to this rule was Commissioner Sylvia Garcia, the first woman and the first Hispanic every elected. She was unable to survive a Republican sweep in 2010.

Most Commissioners serve for 20 years or more, though. This makes the appointment Emmett holds a truly powerful tool.

As well, Emmett hopes that the appointee will consider his positions more favorably once appointed. He hopes this will allow him the opportunity to realign and reposition certain votes at the Court.

For this day, many eyes are focused on county government. Most of the time, it operates in relative obscurity with far less media scrutiny than the City. Far more people can name Annise Parker than can identify the County Judge. But today, all eyes and ears are turned his direction.

Harris County Judge Ed Emmett appointed Judge Cactus Jack Cagle to serve as the Commissioner for Precinct 4.

This entry was originally posted at Nancy Sims' blog, Ponderings.