社評1107 今天是選舉日

今天是選舉日

總計有十八萬五千位大休斯敦地區之選民，在上週五前參加了市長市議員及縣郡公投之投票。今天星期二是正式之投票日， 所有候選人皆卯足全力做最後之衝刺。

共有十七位候選人參選，如果今晚投票結束沒有人超過百分之五十， 複選將於十二月九日舉行， 屆時就會選出下任市長。

德州參議員惠特邁及國會議員希拉積遜李目前似乎是領先兩位候選人，她們可能要在十二月九日才能決勝負。

據有關數字顯示 ，休斯敦目前每天大約有四百位新的市民遷入， 由于經濟發展迅速， 許多加州及東岸居民紛紛來到德州， 整個社區充滿了活力。

我們要在此特別呼籲華亞裔選民之投票意識， 仍然要繼續加強， 遺憾的是， 這次投票率仍然非常底， 這對我們參政是一大障礙 。

 Today Is Election Day

A total of 185,000 voters participated in early voting last Friday. They voted for Houston's Mayor, city council members and for a county referendum. All of the candidates tried their best to be a winner. 

In the mayoral race there are 17 candidates. If none of them do not  exceed 50% of the vote, a runoff date will be held on December 9th and the voters will decide who will be the next mayor of Houston.

Currently, Senator Whitmire and Congresswoman Sheila Jackson Lee are the frontrunners.

According to the latest survey, about 400 new residents move to Houston every day. Due to economic reasons, residents from California and the east coast continue to come to Texas. 

In the meantime, we would like to appeal here to all Asian residents that we still need go to vote. This time the turnout is still very low which is a major obstacle for our political participation.