Election results

Virginia’s political wave sets an example for Houston’s pitifully low turnout.

The ballot featured neither president, nor governor nor mayor, but Tuesday’s election was one of the most important to face Houstonians in decades.

So how did we respond? By not participating. Turnout — at less than 10 percent — was abysmally low.

By approving a $1 billion pension obligation bond, voters set City Hall on track to financial reforms that will cut expenses and, hopefully, usher our city out of a 16-year fiscal crisis. Months of negotiations, years of failed efforts, all came down to this vote — and the vast majority of Houstonians couldn’t be bothered to weigh in.

The immediate issues at City Hall — or Commissioners Court or school board — often have a greater impact on Americans’ everyday lives, yet the local issues have a way of getting lost in the cacophony of national politics. Blame it on media consolidation or the spread of Facebook and Twitter, but our government loses a core of its representative nature when elections that deserve all the attention of a professional sporting event pass with the fanfare of a Little League game.

Something has to change in our civic culture. Easier voting processes. Making Election Day a national holiday. Better promotion efforts. Local officials and nonprofits need to start work now on improving this atrocious turnout.

Houstonians should consider ourselves lucky that no shenanigans were able to sneak through the miniscule number of voters. All of the city bonds passed. Adequate candidates won their races for the Houston Independent School District and Houston Community College System boards. We’re especially glad to see political newcomer Sue Deigaard win a four-way race outright for HISD District V.

Voters will have to return for runoffs at a date to be determined in HISD District I, between Elizabeth Santos and Gretchen Himsl; HISD District III, between Sergio Lira and Jesse Rodriguez; and HCC District IX, between Eugene “Gene” Pack and Pretta VanDible Stallworth. Expect endorsements soon.

There was an example of high turnout on Election Day in the Commonwealth of Virginia. Republican candidate for governor, Ed Gillespie, exceeded the vote total of the state’s last successful GOP gubernatorial candidate, and yet was buried in a landslide Democratic turnout.

But it wasn’t just a top-down success of Democratic gubernatorial candidate Ralph Northam that pulled his party over the finish line. Political observers point to a bottom-up effect of passionate and engaged candidates running at local levels in record numbers. In 2015, Democrats challenged 23 Republican delegates in Virginia. On Tuesday, they challenged 54.

Let this be a lesson to Texas politicos: Run! Too many of our candidates — both R’s and D’s — go unchallenged cycle after cycle. In 2016, no state senator in Harris County faced a major opponent. Not one. Bad politicians get to keep their offices. Policy debates get decided by fringe voices in party primaries.

Nevertheless, Democrats still lack a key candidate for governor, or Harris County judge, or the litany of other down-ballot races. If that’s the best Texas can do, no wonder people don’t vote.

Something has to change in our civic culture. Easier voting processes. Making Election Day a national holiday. Better promotion efforts. Local officials and nonprofits need to start work now on improving this abysmal turnout.