First the good news: Travis County turnout for the first day of early voting yesterday in the current municipal elections was slightly higher than last year: 1,912 (including 221 mail-in ballots received), a bit above the 1,765 from the first day of last year’s munis.
The bad news: It’s still pretty pathetic – only .31% of the county’s registered voters. And it certainly doesn’t compare to the 16,854 that showed up on the first day of voting for last year’s presidential election.
C’mon, folks – I know Lee and Brewster and damn sure not Carole aren’t as exciting as Obama, but the decisions made by the City Council can have a great effect on life here in Austin. Don’t stand on the sidelines and let a tiny minority pick the council for you. Maybe you’re one of those pissed at the Chronicle for not including Buttross or Ingalls in our candidate forum – then go to the polls and give us the finger!
I’m not going to bother with daily updates as I’ve done in the past, unless something crazy happens. Maybe if you head to voting booth, you’ll give me a reason to post.
Early voting continues through May 5; Election Day is May 9. Go to Election Central to get up to speed on the candidates and issues.
This article appears in April 24 • 2009.