Our Mexican-Dixon Line

In the H-Town City Council District H Special Election, 1,251 voted early in person. Maverick Welsh received 17.03 % (213 votes) of the early vote in person. On Election Day, 2,260 turned out to vote at their designated voting location and Welsh received 36.5 % (825 votes) of the vote. Why the wide discrepancy? Channel 13’s Miya Shay said yesterday on her politicalblog.abc13.com that the discrepancy can be attributed to the Welsh campaign being on the “upswing”.  Check it out.  I don’t think so.  Commentary thinks it is more of a geographic thing. Welsh had a whole lot of support from the Heights and they showed up on Election Day instead of voting early. There were three Early Voting locations: Moody Park (in the North Side), Ripley House (in Second Ward), and the Harris County Administration Building (Downtown). Moody Park and Ripley House are in predominant Latino neighborhoods. The three locations are normally used for early voting.

Unless you work near the County Administration Building, nobody goes to vote Downtown because they have to hassle with parking and feed the meters. Moody Park and Ripley House are on the other (east) side of I-45, and voters from the Heights in a regular election prefer to go to the West Gray location near Montrose to cast their vote. Commentary is a Heights voter and I prefer the Moody Park location because I think it is closer and there are never any lines. The West Gray location usually has lines to deal with.

In the case of the Special Election, there wasn’t a West Gray location option so a lot of folks opted to wait until Election Day rather than cross the Mexican-Dixon line, errr I-45 to cast an early vote. I’m sure I’ll catch from grief for laying it out as such, but let’s be honest. I don’t think there is another explanation. It is interesting in that we are all part of the same City Council District, yet there is still a lot of unfamiliarity by some folks with the other side of I-45.

Local Latino/Latina activists certainly weighed in on yesterday’s Chron article on having HPD ask one’s immigration status. Unless the H-Town Mayor and City Council feel like pi__ing off the Latino/Latina community, they better deep six the police union’s proposal. You can go to the Houston Area Latino Summit website to see the responses of local Latinos and Latinas under HOT TOPIC. Check it out.  This is certainly one issue that unites Latinos/Latinas. Si se puede!

Mickey Carroll died last week. Who is Mickey Carroll you ask? He played one of the “Munchkins” in “The Wizard of Oz” – Commentary’s third best all time flick. Commentary has a Mickey Carroll autographed photo from “the Wizard of Oz” that also includes Judy Garland and the gang from “Munchkin Land”.

Humberto Quintero returns to the ‘Stros tonight and let’s see how we do in Colorado for three.

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