02 December 2001
Final Thoughts on Houston's Mayoral Race
My experience on Saturday as a poll observer for the Sanchez campaign was interesting, to say the least. The Sanchez campaign assigned me to a heavily African-American precinct that went overwhelmingly for Lee Brown in the general election (as in, 922 votes for Brown, 12 for Sanchez, 12 for Bell). Since Mayor Brown's campaign raised such a stink over the use of poll watchers (despite their being a routine practice, and provided for in the Texas Election Code), I wasn't quite sure what to expect at the polls, but I was prepared for some degree of animosity. I must say, however, that all of the election workers were extremely professional and friendly, and that the election judge appeared to be a highly competent individual with a high level of integrity. They treated me very well and extended every courtesy.
More importantly, they conducted their precinct very well. That's not to say there were not violations. There were a handful of technical violations of the election code. For one thing, they did not do a very good job of removing campaign literature that voters took into the voting booths (a job that I adopted as my own -- personally, I think the code was better several years ago, when it banned such literature from being handed out at polling places); interestingly, some of that literature advocated a "Black Slate" of candidates, a list of candidates that African-Americans should vote for (imagine the outcry over a "White Slate" campaign brochure! Ah well, we all know only white Republicans are racists. *shrug*). For another, the clerks were much too open with the poll lists, allowing people to look at their names as well as the names around them (as in, "Oh, I see my brother hasn't voted. He needs to come out"). And the clerks did NOT ask people without voter certificates if their address was still the same, which is required by law. But while all of these were technical violations, none of them constituted a breach of the integrity of the vote, although failure to maintain the complete secrecy of the poll lists and who voted probably came closest (but it's not as if someone came in, rifled through the list, and went out to neighborhoods to round up voters -- I would have called appropriate parties in if that were going on).
I will say that that the precinct judge was very good about turning unqualified voters away. He made no exceptions, and did not allow one unqualified voter to vote so far as I could tell (not a single "challenged voter" in his precinct). A number of people were EXTREMELY upset with him over this, but to his credit he handled them by the book.
A representative of the Secretary of State's office came and observed the final hour or so. She was dispatched because of previous complaints about the precinct (apparently 15 complaints in an election will automatically trigger a visit from their office). She noted the same technical violations I mentioned above (and some others of a more obscure nature). Interestingly enough, I suspect she was checking out the precinct because numerous people who were turned away BY THE BOOK last time probably bitched and moaned, and no doubt the NAACP cried intentional disenfranchisement (never mind the precinct was manned entirely by African-American clerks and judges). Oh the irony of that! Heaven forbid someone enforce the damn rules.
People may have resented my presence, but I only experienced one concrete instance all day. An African-American lady who was getting her ballot glared at me, and told the election clerk "I see you have an overseer. Some things never change." Nice.
What was most interesting is the sense of community I got in that precinct. I would say 90% of the people who filtered in knew some or all of the poll workers or the precinct judge. Many of the people knew each other. And they were all very serious about voting.
And that brings me to this last -- my assessment of the election. My preferred candidate, Orlando Sanchez, lost to the incumbent Mayor Lee Brown in a relatively close race. What made the difference was African-American turnout, which surged from the general election numbers. And I have no doubt that the turnout surged to a large degree because of those despicable "James Byrd" phone calls.
I had hoped Houstonians would see through such a blatant use of the race card, and reject the politics of racial division. But sadly, it worked. Lee Brown motivated his base (African-Americans) by unfairly scaring the hell out of them, a tactic that worked for Al Gore in the last Presidential election (but came up just short). Orlando Sanchez motivated one element of his base (Hispanics) out of ethnic pride, but couldn't motivate the second element of his base (white conservatives/moderates), whose numbers didn't increase appreciably from the general election, and so he lost.
Over the 14 hours I spent in the precinct on Saturday, I thought a lot about issues of race and politics, specifically the solidarity of the African-American voters. The Democratic stronghold on that bloc of voters is just amazing. No other group is that cohesive politically. And I'm not sure why that is. Perhaps the peer pressure in the community is just too strong -- the people who came out to vote in this precinct were an amazingly TIGHT group. But I wonder if the group will ever decide that perhaps, just perhaps, they've been duped by one political party, and that they really haven't gotten much for their 90%+ support. I constantly wonder just how many James Byrd advertisements the Democrats can use to scare their base into action before the well runs dry. What could happen to make the well run dry? And if the bloc ever does become divided, does it spell the end of the Democrats?
A lot of people I know are very disappointed over the mayoral race. I am disappointed in the sense that the politics of racial division prevailed, and that the city doesn't need two more years of public works mismanagement. But it will survive, and I think local and state demographics ensure a bright political future for Orlando. And even though I think Orlando would have made (and may still make, down the road) a fine mayor (what good Lence student wouldn't? *smile*), his election also would have been a little messy, in the sense that he was consciously targeting a certain ethnic group that speaks a certain language and emphasizing a last name that definitely appealed to many of them, regardless of the issues. I am reminded of Bob Dole's comments about "making sausage" during the Florida presidential election fiasco last year. This election reminded me a lot of making sausage. It wasn't very appetizing. Maybe that's just how local politics plays out. Perhaps that's another reason I'm better suited for international politics.
Anyway, that's the wrapup. I was perhaps naive to think that a nascent Hispanic political community would be enough to counter a concerted effort to turn out a highly motivated and effective political bloc, especially against the incumbent Democratic mayor in a city that votes Democratic (i.e. even though Harris County went for Bush overall in 2000, the City of Houston narrowly went for Al Gore -- despite Bush's overwhelming popularity throughout Texas). But like I said, Orlando's future in local and Texas politics looks bright, because he's a smart and articulate man who speaks two languages, one of which appeals to a potentially large political community that is only beginning to emerge. What that says about the future of the regime is less certain to me.
[Posted @ 11:54 PM CST]
