Where to Vote on Tuesday, November 4, and Why—So Much Is at Stake

Where to Vote on Tuesday, November 4, and Why—So Much Is at Stake

The polls will be open all across Texas on Tuesday, November 4, from 7 am to 7 pm.  If you have not voted yet, this is your chance. If your family and friends have yet to vote, this is your chance to nudge them to the polls.

You can find out where to go vote here:  http://votetexas.gov/voting/where/.  At this site you can use the Online Voter Central link to identify your polling place (or places, if you are in a county like Travis, where you can vote at any polling site regardless of where you reside). Another source of information is here:  www.mytexasvotes.com.  Don’t forget to take along one of the acceptable forms of photo ID, such as a Texas driver’s license. For the whole list of acceptable IDs, see http://votetexas.gov/register-to-vote/need-id.  

For the story of what is stake in this election and which candidates in key contested races are the true friends of Texas schoolchildren, public education, and educators, visit our Election 2014 Web site:http://www.texasaft.org/election-2014/.

For information on which candidates have earned the support of the Texas AFL-CIO as friends of working Texans, go here: http://www.texasaflcio.org/index.cfm?action=article&articleID=d3afc349-d0c7-44e2-ab65-b60af8c43f9a.

And for the lowdown on State Board of Education races, our friends at the Texas Freedom Network, a watchdog on the SBOE, have compiled key information here:http://www.tfn.org/site/PageNavigator/issues_sboe_elections.html.

The stakes really are huge, in races from top to bottom of the ballot. 

If Wendy Davis is elected governor and Leticia Van de Putte wins the lieutenant governor’s office, we will have on our side two staunch supporters of increased school funding, supporters of equal pay for women, leaders who will use federal funds to expand health coverage to 1.2 million uninsured Texans, and backers of an increase in the minimum wage. They both consider expanded educational opportunity, from full-day pre-K through affordable higher education, to be the best investment the state could make in its economic future. Their opponents, Greg Abbott and Dan Patrick, are on the opposite side of every one of these issues. With the latter pair in the state’s top two offices, we could expect a continuing push to underfund our public schools, misuse test scores to declare them a failure, and hand them over to private operators.

You have the power through your vote to make a positive change in the future of our state and your community. You have the power to help reclaim the promise of public education for Texas schoolchildren and their families by electing leaders who are interested in solving problems, not scoring political points. Don’t give your power away by failing to vote!