If you are reading this on Tuesday, March 6, it’s Election Day – and you still have time to vote. If you haven’t voted already, we can guess what you’re thinking: It’s only a primary. Primaries are just for party loyalists; regular voters can wait until November when the real decisions are made.
Wrong! For starters, in Republican-dominated Texas the “real decisions” are more often than not made in primary elections. If a candidate wins the Republican nomination around these parts, the November election is likely to be a mere formality. The GOP nominee frequently runs unopposed or faces token opposition.
The primary matters.
And the primary, like it or not, is no longer the bastion of “party loyalists.” In many races, a majority of voters who go to the polls on primary day may pledge their loyalty not to their political party and its traditional principles but to an ideological agenda that has nothing to with good government, the public interest or even common sense.
Conscientious voters owe it to themselves and to their fellow citizens to make their voices heard.
In Texas, any eligible voter, in fact, can cast a ballot in either party primary. You don’t have to be a “registered Republican,” for example, to vote in the Republican primary. A Democrat or independent voter who’s worried that a deserving officeholder might be ousted by an unqualified or fanatically ideological challenger can simply request a ballot for that party’s primary and cast a vote for the more qualified candidate.
Don’t worry. Your politically minded friends will forgive you for crossing party lines if you help spare them the misery of seeing an unqualified candidate elected to office.
A number of state and local offices are on the March 6 ballot as are some ballot questions on important issues. Don’t leave these choices to others.
The polls are open March 6 from 7 a.m. until 7 p.m.
For Election Day polling information click here.