Election Day: It’s time to cast those ballots
Voters head to the polls Tuesday to cast ballots for Houston mayor, city council and controller, along with a Metro bond referendum, a pair of Texas House special elections and assorted races in area municipalities and local utility districts.
Voters in Harris County will have the option to cast a ballot in their own precincts or at any of 757 poll locations. Tuesday marks the first November general election in Harris County to utilize the countywide voting locations.
To find polling locations and a sample ballot specific to your zip code, go to harrisvotes.org. The clerk’s office also has posted a list of polling locations, as well as a sample county ballot. Polls open at 7 a.m. and close at 7 p.m.
For more information about races around the county, check out the Chronicle’s voter guide.
To cast ballots in person, registered voters must bring an acceptable form of photo identification. Those are: a Texas driver’s license, a Texas Election Identification Certificate issued by the Department of Public Safety, a Texas personal identification card, a Texas handgun license, a U.S. military identification card, a U.S. citizenship certificate containing a photo or a U.S. passport.
Voters can bring printed materials, such as a sample ballot, into the booth, but may not use cellphones or photographic devices while casting ballots.
Drawing the most attention in Tuesday’s election is the 12-candidate Houston mayor’s race. Also on the ballot are 16 City Council races, featuring eight open seats and eight incumbents who are trying to win another term, along with the race for city controller.
Otherwise, voters within Metro’s 14-city and unincorporated Harris County service area will decide whether to grant the transit agency $3.5 billion in borrowing authority to support an anticipated $7.5 billion long-range
transportation plan.
Across Texas, voters also will decide 10 constitutional amendments, including one that would establish a $793 million fund dedicated to flood resilience infrastructure and another that would bar the implementation of a state income tax without another constitutional amendment.
Some Harris County voters also will cast ballots in a special election to replace longtime House Democrat Jessica Farrar, who stepped down from the Legislature in September. The district covers an area north of downtown and part of the Heights, extending northwest outside Loop 610.
In neighboring Fort Bend County, meanwhile, Democrats are seeking to flip a vacant House seat last held by former Republican state Rep. John Zerwas.
In Baytown and Missouri City, voters will decide one contested council race in each city, while Bellaire voters will cast ballots for a contested mayoral race and three city council seats. Friendswood voters are faced with six propositions covering a range of projects , including drainage work and a new community center, as part of a $76.7 million bond package.
There also are four contested Houston ISD trustee races, along with competitive contests in Aldine, Alief, Cypress-Fairbanks, Klein, New Caney and Spring ISDs, as well as the Houston Community College System. A number of local utility and other special districts also have items on the ballot, including roughly $1.4 billion in combined bonding authority. And voters in The Woodlands will decide three contested township positions.