Regular commenter Mainstream took the time to investigate and document the recent voting history of the candidates on the 2015 city of Houston ballot. Here it is, for your perusal. A couple of caveats: Data is for Harris County, with some additions for a couple of candidates included and noted on the document. Voting history goes back to 2002, except for the 2003 and 2005 municipal elections. Runoffs and special elections are not included. Not everyone has lived in Houston for this whole time period, and I can think of at least one candidate (Philippe Nassif) who is too young to have a voting history that goes as far back as 2002; there are likely some others as well. So don’t make too big a deal out of the difference between voting in every election, and voting in almost every election.
Having said all that, this is a fairly engaged group. I was surprised to not see anyone who has no voting history, as it always seems like there’s one such candidate every election. Only four had no primary voting history in Harris County, while ten have voted at least once in each party’s primary. Sometimes people switch preferences, sometimes they have tactical reasons for choosing one over the other, sometimes there may be something else going on. You’d have to ask the candidate in question why he or she made those particular choices. Also, the Greens and Libertarians don’t do primaries, they do conventions, so if someone has a history of participating in those, this document would not show that. You can’t do both a primary and a convention, just like you can’t vote in more than one primary (or in a D primary and an R runoff or vice versa), so someone who does this regularly will look like someone who doesn’t participate in primaries.
Twenty candidates voted exclusively in Republican primaries, while 37 are Dem-only. That doesn’t quite tell the full story. CM Richard Nguyen voted twice in GOP primaries, but declared himself a Democrat last year and was featured in some Democratic campaign emails in 2014. Demetria Smith (one), Ben Hall (five), Willie Davis (three), and Andrew Burks (five) have all voted exclusively in Democratic primaries but are all HERO opponents of varying vitriol; on the other hand, John LaRue is a HERO supporter and a three-time GOP voter. You still have to get to know the candidates to make an informed decision. Voting history is good to know, but it’s just one piece of a bigger puzzle. I hope this information is useful to you, and my sincere thanks to Mainstream for putting it together.
The ballot is secret so they can only determine that the person showed up to vote. I don’t waste my time voting. I agree with W E B Dubois: “I believe that democracy has so far disappeared in the United States that no “two evils” exist. There is but one evil party with two names, and it will be elected despite all I can do or say….Will your helpless vote either way support or restore democracy to America?”
I am curious Jason, if you had obtained the needed signatures would you have voted?
Well Manuel, had I obtained enough signatures that would’ve gotten me on the ballot, but I wouldn’t have voted. Although if someone like me were on the ballot then I could vote, since I don’t belong to the one evil party.
You would not have voted for yourself?