On November 6, Texans will go to the polls to vote on a variety of state and local issues. First and foremost, voters decide on 16 amendments to the Texas Constitution including Proposition 15, the much-touted amendment to fund cancer research in the state.
In addition voters in some municipalities, most prominently Houston, will be casting votes for city officials including mayors and city council members. College districts, independent school districts, and special districts across the state will also hold elections for their leaders. A number of cities and school districts will also hold bond elections to fund everything from jail construction to parks and recreation and school facilities. Some school districts will also hold elections to authorize tax rates higher than those allowed by the tax reform plan passed by the Texas Legislature in special session in 2006.
Texas bloggers have dedicated a considerable amount of coverage to election issues across the state, from the statewide constitutional amendment election to local issues. Much of this coverage is highlighted below.
Local Elections, Bonds, & Referendums
Charles Kuffner at Off The Kuff has exhaustive coverage of local elections in Houston from city council elections to college district elections and city bonds. There are a large number of posts, but mosts can be found in two categories, here and here.
Bill Howell in Stoutdemblog recommends a 'Yes' on the Dallas referendum on the Trinity River in River Don't You Weep.
Texas Cloverleaf has a round-up of campaign spending on the Trinity River campaign.
Grits for Breakfast has a collection of jail-related propositions on the ballot across the state, including in Smith County (Tyler).
North Texas Liberal explores the pros and cons of the Trinity River referendum in Dallas.
Other Key Local Election Coverage:
Homophobia Rears Its Nasty Head in Fort Worth City Council Race (Doing My Part For The Left)
Endorsements & Voters Guides: Statewide Amendments & Local Races
Non-partisan voter's guides on the 16 statewide Constitutional Amendments: Texas League of Women Voters, Texas Legislative Council (full version), Texas Legislative Council (condensed version--warning, this is a .doc file), Texas House Research Organization.
Newspaper Endorsements For Constitutional Amendments: Dallas Morning News, Austin American-Statesman, Waco Tribune-Herald (split editorials: here, here, here, here, here), El Paso Times (Prop. 4) Lufkin Daily News, Lubbock Avalanche-Journal, San Antonio Express-News.
Bill Howell at Stoutdemblog provides links to analyses of the amendments, then compares different stands taken on them by some other bloggers and Republicans and Libertarians, then gives his personal stands on each at Web Resources On The Endless Amendments.
Muse at Musings urges voters to just vote the opposite of the Harris County Republican Party's endorsements.
Capitol Annex has endorsements of the 16 Constitutional Amendments with detailed information behind the reasons for their picks in their four endorsement posts.
WCNews at Eye on Williamson has "Early Voting in formation for Williamson County" along with several guides and couple of opinions on the amendments .
Off the Kuff gives his recommendations for the state and local bonds and propositions.
CouldBeTrue at South Texas Chisme points at some resources to decipher the proposed Texas constitutional amendments.
Other Notable Statewide Amendment Coverage:
Proposition 4 (Off The Kuff)
Proposition 15 Ramps Up (Off The Kuff)
