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Manning the Tent

On seven occasions recently we manned a political party tent at the Wimberley voting location. It's the tent set up to provide information to voters who may need help in the voting process.  People like us took two hour shifts throughout the day.   We refer to ourselves as tent sitters.  The information we provide is a variety of documents ranging from sample ballots to information on county through state candidates.  Since this was a primary election, we could not express a preference for any candidate.  During the general election in November, we will be able to provide a spiel on why one should vote for our candidate, but not in the primary election.

In Texas, a voter can choose any party to vote in the primary election, but come the runoffs, should there be any, the voter must then stay with the party chosen in the initial primary voting.  Then with the general election, everyone gets the same ballot no matter which party you chose in the primary.  The latter rule is common in all states.

One change enacted in Texas recently is the elimination of straight party vote. Now a voter must vote for individuals throughout the ballot.  A bit of an improvement in voter involvement.

The voting machines are simple to operate.  Your ballot is assigned a serial number, you vote for the candidates of choice and the machine generates a paper ballot with your choices shown after your last step check to be sure your choices were made correctly.  Your paper ballot is then entered into another machine that tabulates the ballot which is then added to the voting machine tally.

Paper ballots are only sent to those requesting ballots.  These are now serialized and contain the requester's ID.  Only question that keeps popping up in my mind is the integrity of the voter rolls.  So many states have demonstrated that the voter rolls contain many errors, that it makes me wonder.

Most voters do not stop at a party tent.  But those who do fall into two categories.  One set like to chat about politics in general and the other set are uninformed and look to those of us at the tent for guidance in the process of voting.  Some do ask for recommendations and as said, in the primary election we can't offer any recommendations.  What this does reveal though is the number of people who seem to not know how to, or care to research the candidates.  Most reveal that they rely more on the candidates' actions and not so much on what they say.  Seems as if they are on to the ways of politicians.

Voters come in all shapes and sizes but there is one exception.  In all seven sessions while we were at the tent, we saw not one person under the estimated age of 25.  Poor showing if one must say so.

Not only do voters come in all shapes and sizes, but so do the candidates.  Again, not very many young people running for office, but elected office does seem to attract the hey, look at me personality.  Some constituents showed up at the Meet and Greet session of candidates in the VFW Hall who were there to express their intention of saving us from doom should they get elected.  One candidate in her video for Railroad Commissioner chose to pose in a topless bikini while 'riding' atop an oil well pump jack to attract attention. It was enough of an attraction to get her to the runoff, but she lost decidedly to the incumbent then. But maybe that was the result of a blog post she made disparaging the NRA, something one does not do in the great state of Texas.

We are already looking forward to the general election in November when we will volunteer again to tent sit.  Strange world when one's entertainment gets down to this, eh?


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