Houston Newsmakers Oct. 23: Early voting; Houstonians' chance to influence budget

HOUSTON – Stan Stanart, the Harris County Clerk, said he's expecting a record turnout for the upcoming elections.

"We're planning on 1.4 million voters," he said. "That means 750,000 are going to vote early and we're going to have over 100,000 ballot by mails returned to us. We've already had $50,000 in our offices that have been returned."

Stanart is a guest this week on Houston Newsmakers with Khambrel Marshall and said concerns about fraud in our election system are way over blown.

"For people to be skeptical is a good thing. Now in Harris County I want to assure the voters of the integrity of our voting machines. We're not connected to the internet. We have many layers of security in our whole process to secure the vote," Stanart said.

Much more from Stanart on the expansion of voting hours during the early voting process which starts Oct. 24 and runs until Nov. 4. Click here for more information about early voting hours and locations, a sample ballot and voter identification requirements.

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Houston City Councilmember Amanda Edwards, At-Large Position 4, is a guest this week with information about a city of Houston survey to all residents to get input about what they think the city's priorities should be.

"We'll ask for their top three priorities and identify what those are and the city council and the mayor will then come together, talk about what we found in terms of resident input and develop initiatives that will be included in next year's budget," Edwards said.

She said this is not something that's been done before and is a good way to include the citizens in decisions about everyone's future.

"I'm really excited about it," she said. "It's not an obvious approach but a very good one in that it shows commitment from the city that we're not just talking about what our vision is. We're actually now attaching funding to what our vision is and the steps needed to actually realize that vision."

To give input, Houstonians are asked to go to the website www.planhouston.org to see the strategic plan and to take the survey to give input.

Houston Newsmakers with Khambrel Marshall, every Sunday at 10 a.m. right after Meet the Press on KPRC 2.

More Information: 
•Stan Stanart, Harris County Clerk, 713-274-8600 www.Harrisvotes.org
•Amanda Edwards, Houston City Council, At-Large Position 4, 832-393-3012, www.houstontx.gov atlarge4@houstontx.gov