It’s hard to believe, but did you know that there are other elections taking place this year that affect Highland Village, Flower Mound, Corinth, and the rest of Denton County residents?
So I must admit, I am not one of the 93,371 residents who have taken advantage of the 14 early voting locations in Denton County as of Monday evening. So with 362,000 registered voters in Denton County, this post may not relate to 25.8% of you who have already cast your votes. But what worries me, is how many took the time to research the candidates in the other races besides for the President of the United States?
Albeit, I have been consumed with watching both presidential candidates repeat the same things over-and-over the last 6 months. Or even enjoying looking at the hilarious pictures, and videos that are posted about both candidates all over the internet – and now even here! Not to mention, helping buyers and sellers in a real estate market that is nothing less than challenging. Preparing and finalizing paperwork for upcoming closings. So I decided I better not be “one of those” that enter the polling booth and have no idea what all these other names are doing on the ballot.
So last night I spent about 4 hours, reading up on the candidates I am able to cast a vote for in my district, and precinct. First I went to Denton County Voter Registration Database Search and confirmed the districts I could vote for by simply entering my name and date of birth, I also downloaded the sample ballot from the bottom of the page. With this information, I fired up Google and began my initial research. Much to my dismay, this began to get a little tedious, a lot of candidates just really didn’t do their part for getting a good web presence. I did stumble on this great little interactive page from The Dallas Morning News Voter Guide though. By using it you can enter your address, they do have a privacy disclaimer that says they are only using it for the purposes of getting the correct precinct thankfully. From there it brings up each race on a single page, with each of it’s candidates. At the top of that box, you can click a link that will give you who The Dallas Morning News is endorsing, but the thing I liked most about it is that it opened in another tab, or page and did not distract me from researching on my own. Below that link you can select 2 candidates and compare them, just like a shopping at Wal-Mart Online or something similar, with information that they submitted in response to a survey sent out by the newspaper.
It was a little disturbing to me that so many elected hopefuls did not submit their responses, now I am not sure about the time alloted, or circumstances as to why they didn’t, but I must admit, it did leave a little black mark in my mind for them. Now back to that endorsing page, it was just not “YOU SHOULD VOTE FOR “xX name here Xx” They actually pointed out some very pertinent information, such as how much time a judge spent in their office, or historical information about fines incurred, or stances on policies, and then explained the endorsement. It’s not often myself, or dare say many REALTORS® are impressed by tools or information put out by a newspaper, but I did find it unbiased, and informative. Not to say there are not more links on that page that point you to news articles that are biased, or skewed to one party or the other.
I just let myself get caught up in reading and clicking away, tabbed browsing really has changed researching everything from real estate, to politics, to home improvement hasn’t it?
After you have checked marked your candidates you can email yourself, or anyone you would like, or print it from there so you can have yourself a nice little Informed Decision sample ballot to take with you to the polls on November 4th, or to the early voting locations by Friday at 7:00pm
So I was almost done, I had myself a nice little mix of Democrats and Republicans, and gasp even a Libertarian or two. But I decided I should take a look at who the Texas Association of REALTORS® is endorsing, afterall I am a real estate agent who has the designation of REALTOR® and I want people in office who are going to help fix and correct the lending and mortgage industry, facilitate ownership for hopeful buyers, and a market where sellers can turn a profit when selling their home. But, with all that being said, I also do not want to support a person who is crony to lobbyist.
In part,
The Texas Association of REALTORS® does not consider party affiliation when deciding which candidates to support. The TREPAC/Texas Association of REALTORS® Political Action Committee backs candidates who support the REALTOR® Party—those who understand the real estate industry, fight for private-property rights, and believe in free enterprise.
The process for obtaining support from the Texas Association of REALTORS® typically starts at the local level. Local associations of REALTORS® invite candidates to be interviewed concerning their positions on important issues. A screening panel—usually six to 10 REALTORS®—asks candidates how they would vote on matters of concern to the real estate industry. The panel then makes recommendations to the local board of directors for support of specific candidates.
So I guess the good news could be, all but 1 of the candidates I chose on my own merits were endorsed by the T.A.R. So since I have spent my evening writing this article I have missed another day of early voting, and since I am leaving for New York City at 7:00am tomorrow, it appears I will be one of those 150,000 voting the old fashion way…on Election Day!
Related posts:
- Can you help me buy or sell real estate in…? This is a question I get far to often, and I should have addressed here publicly long ago. I make no bones about it ((To state a fact in a...
- How some agents waste your time and theirs with Open Houses Now if that headline got your attention let me say I am a fan of the open house / broker's open when done properly. My issue is how a lot...
- The Extended First Time Home Buyer Tax Credit There is really not a whole lot more that needs to be said that my other article here has not already covered. Other than the dates, some changes to the...
- First Time Homebuyer Tax Credit Extended for Military Personnel It is expected that about 350,000 military personnel and an unknown number of federal employees may be affected once this is passed into law. This is one I feel everyone...
All Rights Reserved© Jay Myers (972) 510-7800 Licensed Real Estate Agent in Texas
Keller Williams Realty 2611 Cross Timbers Rd Suite #100 Flower Mound, TX 75028
Information deemed reliable but not guaranteed 