Election officials at Bellaire’s five precincts today said they are disappointed but not surprised at the light voter turnout for the city’s runoff election.
“It’s Christmas, we have bad weather, we have voter apathy,” said Precinct 128 Election Judge Randy Pollard. Stationed at City Hall, Pollard said that 275 people had voted although over 2,000 are registered in the precinct.
At the five polling places by about 5 p.m. Saturday only about 3,000 people, or 10 percent of registered voters, had shown up to cast ballots. Their votes will choose two new city council members, about one third of the entire council. The election promises to significantly change city leadership for years to come.
“It’s going to be decided by a handful of people,” said Katie O’Harra, an alternate election judge in Precinct 214 at Southwest Presbyterian Church. O’Harra’s precinct had seen only 140 voters, out of more than 1,700 people who are registered. Some of those voters were from Houston, because the polling place is shared between the two cities.
James Jameson, who is running against Andrew Friedberg for the Place 5 city council seat, said he was stationed at Precinct 214 for most of the day and noticed that voters came in “spurts.”
“People who are coming out seem to have already made up their minds,” Jameson said, waving his campaign flyers. “They don’t need any of this stuff.”
A steady stream of one-to-two voters at a time strolled into Precinct 215 at Faith Lutheran Church to cast ballots. By about 5 p.m., Election Judge Sarah Ginsburg Jaehne counted 208 ballots, again representing about 10 percent of registered voters.
“It’s better than most people expected,” said Place 3 Candidate Corbett Parker, who is running against Roseann Rogers. “I know with the majority of the candidates really took the time making sure people got out to vote.”
Parker floated around to multiple precincts during the day, but ended up at Precinct 182 at Horn Elementary School by the early evening. That precinct, the largest in Bellaire with 3,142 registered voters, had recorded about 440 ballots. Not all of them were Bellaire voters, however — The polling place was shared with Houston.
“On all off elections, it’s always disappointing,” said Election Judge J. Patrick Hughes. “That’s what I expected: It’s an unfortunate expectation.”
It was the same story at ChristChurch Presbyterian, where 239 voters from Precinct 268 cast ballots. The precinct has over 2,400 people registered to vote. Andrew Friedberg was posted outside the church greeting voters, and said the turnout was a “steady trickle.”
“We’re glad this will be over tonight,” Friedberg said. “We’re ready for the long election season to end.”
Check InstantNewsBellaire.com at 7:15 p.m. for the results from early voting. We will post official election results as soon as we receive them.
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