Voting Alphabet Soup
When I arrived at my polling location at 9 a.m., I got behind a line maybe twenty-five people long in the open air. The line snaked out the front-door of an apartment complex office. The old woman behind me said that the line was much longer when she'd come by at 7:30 a.m. The temperature had dropped from the 80s we were experiencing in days previous down to the 50s. The sky was dark and occasionally spitting rain droplets.
The man at the door started calling for people with last names M through Z. I just stood there in a little wonderment. Just one person approached the front door. The official at the door called again. My name falls in that range, so I approached, feeling strange to jump the line, and thus landed just third in line inside.
The big paper registration books had been divided evenly alphabetically A-L, M-Z, but by some coincidence almost everyone showing up to vote had A-L last names. Woo-hoo for mine then! The total process took less than fifteen minutes including standing in line time and casting a ballot that included a write-in.
Everyone knows about the big presidential race, but I'm watching some Texas House seats closely.
During the last legislative session (Texas nominally is in session only every other year, but our governor called a few special sessions and managed to waste lots of money this year with no accomplishments to show for it), I was very ill-represented by Jack Stick. He was really a DeLay lackey and appeared (on cable access broadcast of the legislature) to love being part of the GOP frat. The Austin American-Statesman gives strong endorsement to Jack's challenger Mark Strama, as well as a stinging review of Jack's follies.
Now I've moved and the incumbent Todd Baxter appears to be a Jack-Stick-alike. So it is a no-brainer for me to vote for Kelly White. The Stateman's endorsement agrees, and lists a number of follies that Baxter shares with Stick.