Austin Improv

Hi – Just a friendly reminder regarding upcoming elections and making sure you are registered. The primaries are competitive this year and your vote counts. The state primary in Texas for both Republicans and Democrats is March 04, 2008….but to vote in them you need to be registered by Monday, February 4th, 2008 (next week). I'm no expert on such matters but just took a very circular tour of the State and County web-sites so I thought I would pass on the good links from that for folks….

Don’t know if you’re registered? Change name or address? Forgot your precinct or where that polling station is? Go here: http://www.traviscountytax.org/showVoterSearch.do

If you’re not registered and you live in Travis County, you can request a postage-paid form to be sent to you here: http://w03web.sos.state.tx.us/vrrequest/index.asp. But, really, in the interest of time, you should probably print this off, fill it out and mail it to the address listed: http://www.traviscountytax.org/pdfs/Vot ... onForm.pdf

For the primary, if you’re a Democrat your ballot will look like:
http://www.co.travis.tx.us/county_clerk ... ot_dem.pdf

Republican? It will look like this:
http://www.co.travis.tx.us/county_clerk ... ot_rep.pdf

Libertarian? Green? Ross Perot? Not Sure how that works for you, sorry.

So the key dates are Feb 4th for registration, March 4th for primaries, and May 10th for some state and local elections (including three very important places for City council – with two of the races being very competitive) and then, of course, November 4th for the big show down.

I’ve copied the dates and offices that are up this year below or you can find more details here:
http://www.co.travis.tx.us/county_clerk ... /dates.asp
http://www.sos.state.tx.us/elections/vo ... ices.shtml

Tuesday, March 04, 2008 -- Primary Election
• Voter Registration Deadline: Monday, February 04, 2008
• Begin Accepting Applications to Vote by Mail: Friday, January 04, 2008
• Final Day to Accept Applications to Vote by Mail: Tuesday, February 26, 2008
• Early In Person Voting Begins: Tuesday, February 19, 2008
• Early In Person Voting Ends: Friday, February 29, 2008
Tuesday, April 08, 2008 -- Primary Runoff Election
• Voter Registration Deadline: Monday, March 10, 2008
• Begin Accepting Applications to Vote by Mail: Friday, February 08, 2008
• Final Day to Accept Applications to Vote by Mail: Tuesday, April 01, 2008
• Early In Person Voting Begins: Monday, March 31, 2008
• Early In Person Voting Ends: Friday, April 04, 2008
Saturday, May 10, 2008 -- Joint General & Special Elections
• Voter Registration Deadline: Thursday, April 10, 2008
• Begin Accepting Applications to Vote by Mail: Tuesday, March 11, 2008
• Final Day to Accept Applications to Vote by Mail: Friday, May 02, 2008
• Early In Person Voting Begins: Monday, April 28, 2008
• Early In Person Voting Ends: Tuesday, May 06, 2008
Tuesday, November 04, 2008 -- Presidential Election• Voter Registration Deadline: Monday, October 06, 2008
• Begin Accepting Applications to Vote by Mail: Friday, September 05, 2008
• Final Day to Accept Applications to Vote by Mail: Tuesday, October 28, 2008
• Early In Person Voting Begins: Monday, October 20, 2008
• Early In Person Voting Ends: Friday, October 31, 2008


Offices Up For Election In 2008
President of the United States of America 4 yr. term
U. S. Senator 6 yr. term - John Cornyn
All 32 United States Representatives 2 yr. term
Railroad Commissioner 6 yr. term - Michael Williams
Chief Justice, Supreme Court 6 yr. term - Wallace Jefferson
2 members of the Supreme Court 6 yr. term J. Dale Wainwright, Place 7 , Phil Johnson, Place 8
3 members of the Court of Criminal Appeals 6 yr. term Thomas Price, Place 3 , Paul Womack, Place 4 , Cathy Cochran, Place 9
15 State Senators 4 yr. term (Districts 4, 6, 9, 10, 11, 16, 20, 21, 23, 24, 26, 27, 28, 30, 31)
All 150 State Representatives 2 yr. term
7 Members, State Board of Education 4 yr. term (Districts 2, 6, 7, 8, 11, 13, 14)
Chief Justice of Courts of Appeals 6 yr. term
Various Court of Appeals Justices 6 yr. term
Various District Judges, Criminal District Judges 4 yr. term
Family District Judges
District Attorneys 4 yr. term
Sheriff 4 yr. term
County Court at Law 4 yr. term
County Attorneys 4 yr. term
Tax Assessor-Collector 4 yr. term
County Commissioners, Precincts 1 & 3 4 yr. term
Justices of the Peace 4 yr. term
Constable 4 yr. term

awesome, thanks so much, this rocks!

do you have any advice on how to find out where each candidate stands? voting guides, etc...

madeline wrote:awesome, thanks so much, this rocks!

do you have any advice on how to find out where each candidate stands? voting guides, etc...

Use Project Vote Smart.

madeline wrote:awesome, thanks so much, this rocks!

do you have any advice on how to find out where each candidate stands? voting guides, etc...

there's also http://www.ontheissues.org

or you could just take my word for it and vote Obama

arthursimone wrote: or you could just take my word for it and vote Obama

Seconded.

I too am supporting Obama, and Super Tuesday has made this a really close race for the nomination. Clinton is about 87 delegates ahead of Obama toward the 2,025 needed for the ticket.

I think Texas has 228 Democratic delegates, which means March 4 is a really important primary election here. I wouldn't be surprised if Clinton and Obama both come back here soon to campaign.

Please, if you can, vote in the primary, and vote for Barack Obama.

The candidates web sites are a great place to get info in all sorts of forms. Clinton: http://www.hillaryclinton.com Obama: http://www.barackobama.com/index_a.php occasionally I've had trouble with the Obama site because the servers are overloaded, but if you just pick a tab at the top and go somewhere else in the site it usually works.

Personally, I'm still divided. Or actually confused by two great choices. I hope they are both on the ballot, either order is fine with me.


If you are republican - vote McCain http://www.johnmccain.com/- everyone else is too scary.

arthursimone wrote:

madeline wrote:awesome, thanks so much, this rocks!

do you have any advice on how to find out where each candidate stands? voting guides, etc...

there's also http://www.ontheissues.org

That's a really good site - thank you for posting that.

What i really want to know is who are you voting for in terms of County Commissioner! Senator! Tax Assessor-Collector? Constable?

Where do they stand on the issues? Are there any cool little charts to compare them? I'm looking through these websites and I can't find much info on the other peoples on the ballot...

Seriously, I don't know the difference between any of those people. how do y'all choose?

The Texas League of Women Voters makes a nice summary of the candidates and the issues before each election. I usually use it as a starting point, especially with the more local offices/candidates that I know nothing about.

http://www.lwvtexas.org/

thanks kareem!

*Bump*

Early voting ends today. Avoid the crowds on March 4th.

Voting in the primaries is important because for many offices like District Attorney, there is no Republican candidate and for some state wide offices, there is no Democratic candidate, so whoever wins the primary will win the office. (Sorry, Libertarians and Communists ) .

You should still show up at the polling place on March 4th at 7PM so you can witness the bizarre ritual of the party caucus. I hear they sacrifice babies there.

yes!
I just did early voting and it was easypie... i carried in a list of all the local people i was going to vote for based on what I read from paper endorsements and league of women voters guide.

have that list of local candidates with you!!!! it's important!



now I can spend all day tuesday workin' for my man

Can someone explain how the Texas caucus works? I thought we decided on candidates based on the popular vote of the primary election, but then I heard something today that said a certain percentage is decided by popular vote and the other part is decided by (the ever-so back--asswards) caucus method.