HOUSTON? We have a Problem

[Double L]

Originally Posted by Nouvellecosse

It's often true that the majority of people didn't vote for the person elected. Happens all the time here. But that tends to be a more convincing argument when it's due to vote splitting in places with more than two main options. Like if the winner got 40% and the other candidates or parties got say, 35% and 25% then 60% voted for someone else. But when most people didn't vote for the winner because most people didn't vote...

Like, why didn't you vote guys? Most people may not have voted for the winner, but they also chose not to vote against them which is still a choice.

Texas has a runoff system in its elections.

[wwmiv]

Originally Posted by Double L

Texas has a runoff system in its elections.

Texas has a majoritarian system for primaries and a plurality system for general elections. Ergo, run-offs only happen for primary nominations and not between partisan nominees to fill the actual office itself in the general election—to win the general you just need one more vote than your next closest opponent.

Only these states meaningfully require run-off elections:

• California, where the general election is a de facto run-off after an all-party primary.
• Washington, where the general election is a de facto run-off after an all-party primary.
• Louisiana, where there are run-off elections for federal offices after the general election when no candidate receives a true majority and where state offices feature an all party primary and a run-off general election a la California.
• Georgia, where there are run-off elections after the general election when no candidate receives a true majority for only some offices.
• Mississippi, where the state legislature decides the candidate in a pseudo runoff in absence of a majority and this only applies to the office of Governor.
• Vermont, where the state legislature decides the candidate in a pseudo runoff absence of a majority for all state level officials elected on a statewide ballot.

[bilbao58]

Originally Posted by wwmiv

Texas has a majoritarian system for primaries and a plurality system for general elections. Ergo, run-offs only happen for primary nominations and not between partisan nominees to fill the actual office itself in the general election—to win the general you just need one more vote than your next closest opponent.

Runoffs are used in local (supposedly) nonpartisan elections, at least in Houston. If no one wins a clear majority in the first round, the top two winners will meet in a runoff. Thus the two candidates in the last election for Houston mayor were Democrats Sheila Jackson Lee and John Whitmire.

[wwmiv]

Originally Posted by bilbao58

Runoffs are used in local (supposedly) nonpartisan elections, at least in Houston. If no one wins a clear majority in the first round, the top two winners will meet in a runoff.

Those are local choices and state law has nothing to say on it. Ergo it is still accurate to say “Texas does not have run-offs for general elections.” if you also understand that some municipalities therein may make different choices for their own affairs. E.G. “Texas does not have run-offs, but Houston sure does.”

[bilbao58]

Originally Posted by wwmiv

Those are local choices and state law has nothing to say on it.

I know. I'm just thinking Double L may have been thinking of that since he or she is from Houston and the election is fresh in people's minds.

[wwmiv]

Originally Posted by bilbao58

Runoffs are used in local (supposedly) nonpartisan elections, at least in Houston. If no one wins a clear majority in the first round, the top two winners will meet in a runoff. Thus the two candidates in the last election for Houston mayor were Democrats Sheila Jackson Lee and John Whitmire.

Originally Posted by bilbao58

I know. I'm just thinking Double L may have been thinking of that since he or she is from Houston and the election is fresh in people's minds.

Ah. Understood.

[bilbao58]

And, of course, if turnout is minuscule, the majority of eligible voters still didn't vote for the winner. Runoff or majoritarian or whatever..

[wwmiv]

Originally Posted by bilbao58

And, of course, if turnout is minuscule, the majority of eligible voters still didn't vote for the winner. Runoff or majoritarian or whatever..

Fun Fact: Florida requires that the number of votes cast for any state constitutional amendment be a majority of those registered (rather than of votes cast) in order to win.

[TWAK]

Originally Posted by wwmiv

Fun Fact: Florida requires that the number of votes cast for any state constitutional amendment be a majority of those registered (rather than of votes cast) in order to win.

Whew, now that's tough.

[Nouvellecosse]

Originally Posted by Double L

Texas has a runoff system in its elections.

I don't understand runoff systems well enough to know how that explains there only being a 45% voter turnout.

[bilbao58]

Originally Posted by Nouvellecosse

I don't understand runoff systems well enough to know how that explains there only being a 45% voter turnout.

It doesn't. And statewide, runoffs are only for party primary elections, the elections which determine who will be each party's nominee in the general election.

In local elections with more than two candidates, runoffs are used if no candidate wins a clear majority of the votes. The top two will face off in the runoff. None of this affects, or is affected by, low voter turnout. Primaries have notoriously low turnout... some years in single digit percentages.

[PhillyRising]

Originally Posted by 3rd&Brown

Oh well. Texas should get on it then, because I'm tired of subsidizing new roofs on every house in South Florida and along the Gulf Coast every year.

Meanwhile, I'm in a 'very low risk' county and my homeowners is only 30% lower than the typical policy in Harris County. My parents who live in the next county over have been in their house for 50 years and NEVER had a claim.

But let's keep subsidizing this nonsense.

I said that for years that Northeastern homeowners subsidize the south. It's not fair. Charge the homeowners down south what they should be charged to rebuild over and over. My homeowners insurance went up by a lot in the mid-2000's when Florida got hit by 3 hurricanes and then when Katrina ripped apart New Orleans and the Gulf Coast. Since I went back to renting 10 years ago I can only imagine how much that house is being charged for coverage. I was close to a grand a year in 2014.

...and yet the one time the Northeast has a freak storm like Sandy...what did politicians from those states do? Vote against the aid package.

[PhillyRising]

Originally Posted by SIGSEGV

I mean, in cold (but not too cold...) climates, it helps prevent freezing.

...and in the summer they offer a nice cool place to go if you don't have central AC. My parents did not have AC through the whole house growing up so in the summer i was in the basement more often than upstairs just because it was 15 degrees or more cooler down there.

[Steely Dan]

^ totally.

I grew up in a 1914 bungalow in suburban Chicago that didn't have an HVAC system, and because the second floor of our house was just built-out attic space with woefully inadequate cross ventilation, on hotter summer days it could easily get to be 100 degrees or warmer up there with the sun cooking the roof like a solar oven all day long.

But we did have a finished family room down in the basement. During heat waves the temp differential could be up to 25 degrees thanks to the natural cooling effect of the earth, so when things wouldn't cool off at night, my mom and dad would pull out the sofa bed in the family room and my sister and I would roll out our sleeping bags on the floor down there, as we all retreated to our "summer bedroom".

[PhillyRising]

Originally Posted by Steely Dan

^ totally.

I grew up in a 1914 bungalow in suburban Chicago that didn't have an HVAC system, and because the second floor of our house was just built-out attic space with woefully inadequate cross ventilation, on hotter summer days it could easily get to be 100 degrees or warmer up there with the sun cooking the roof like a solar oven all day long.

But we did have a finished family room down in the basement. During heat waves the temp differential could be up to 25 degrees thanks to the natural cooling effect of the earth, so when things wouldn't cool off at night, my mom and dad would pull out the sofa bed in the family room and my sister and I would roll out our sleeping bags on the floor down there, as we all retreated to our "summer bedroom".

That is no unlike what happened here. In the Philadelphia region, many of the homes in Northeast/Northwest Philadelphia and in many of the older suburbs were twin homes....a lot like the one i grew up in which was considered a "twin ranch" which the name explains it's setup. You had the top floor with all rooms..it was two steps up to a hallway from the living/dining room that had the bedrooms and bath. The basement was pretty much the same size less one bedroom which is where the garage would be usually in the back of the house that faced an alleyway. So..in these house...and usually with Italian families....the basement would have a second kitchen. Many of the houses on my street had the second kitchen at the part of the basement that you could walk out since that was your back door and it was just off your driveway on the alleyway. That is where most cooked during the summer months...and then you went back to the upstairs kitchen in the winter. Our neighbor across the way primarily used her downstairs kitchen all year round...because the front of the basement was always the family room which was the same size as the upstairs living room and kitchen combined.

[Cress3803]

‘This Storm Has Broken People’: After Beryl, Some Consider Leaving

https://dnyuz.com/2024/07/16/this-st...sider-leaving/

[bilbao58]

Originally Posted by Cress3803

‘This Storm Has Broken People’: After Beryl, Some Consider Leaving

https://dnyuz.com/2024/07/16/this-st...sider-leaving/

"Since 2016, according to U.S. census data, more people have left Harris County for other counties than have moved in from elsewhere."

Yet the Census Bureau lists Harris County as the top county in the US for numeric population increase.



https://www.census.gov/newsroom/pres...ains-2023.html

[JManc]

If my wife and I didn't have our mothers here (mid 70's), we'd probably consider leaving the Houston area. Our homeowners insurance premium is very high but the deductible for hurricane damage still wouldn't cover the losses from Beryl so we're paying for everything out of pocket...tens of thousands. I anticipate more and more wild and crazy weather; freezes, freak storms, drought and more hurricanes compusned with exorbitant insurance premiums.

[bilbao58]

Originally Posted by Cress3803

‘This Storm Has Broken People’: After Beryl, Some Consider Leaving

https://dnyuz.com/2024/07/16/this-st...sider-leaving/

That linked website looks like a real winner. From MediaBiasFactCheck:

DNyuz is an Armenian website that plagiarizes content word for word from major news sources. They literally copy and paste entire articles and embed their advertising code for profit. As one can imagine, a source like this completely lacks transparency as there is zero information to be found about authors, owners, location, or mission.

https://mediabiasfactcheck.com/dnyuz/

[mhays]

Can we just cancel threads like this based on purely BS sources?