All 11 proposed amendments to the Texas Constitution passed after 30,068 Travis County voters and other Texans hit their precinct polling places Tuesday.
Proposition 4, which sparked debate from campus political groups including Young Conservatives of Texas and University Democrats, was approved by a vote of about 56 percent at press time. Prop 4 establishes a National Research University Fund to create more top-tier research universities.
About 81 percent of voters said yes to Proposition 11, which restricts eminent domain to public purposes, while about 68 percent of voters voted for Proposition 2 at press time, which requires homesteads to be appraised only on their value as residential property.
About 5 percent of registered voters cast their vote in Travis County.
John McEvoy, an election judge at the Flawn Academic Center, the polling place for Precinct 148, said the number of people who came out to vote Tuesday exceeded his expectations.
McEvoy has been involved in elections for 15 years, nine of which were spent on campus.
“One year, we had as few as nine people show up to vote, which proves to be a long day,” McEvoy said. “It all varies depending what is on the ballot and how it affects students. I know there was a big push for Prop 4 on campus this year.”
He said that a big problem was voters not knowing which precinct they were in, because voters must cast their ballot in the precinct determined by the address they put on their voter registration card.
“It’s a problem every year,” McEvoy said. “Students are not properly informed about where to go to vote.”
Polls were open from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m., and by 6:15 p.m., about 50 people had cast their ballots at the FAC. McEvoy said 116 people had shown up to vote at the FAC who were in the wrong precinct.
“By redirecting people, hopefully they’ll know what to do next time,” McEvoy said. “We do this job to give students a positive voting experience, and hopefully, they’ll be lifelong voters.”
Music performance sophomore Torsten Knabe said he followed the amendment conversation through early voting and cast his vote Tuesday at the FAC.
“I care most about Prop 4 and Prop 11, but I think everyone should vote, period, end of story,” Knabe said. “We need a research fund for universities to better our higher education system, and I’m against allowing people to steal land for the Trans-Texas Corridor.”
He said that a lot of people may not have been aware that there was an election Tuesday.
“People are apathetic or unaware, and there’s not really a face attached to these constitutional amendment elections like there are in elections for officials,” Knabe said.
Marketing sophomore Leah Horsch said that she became aware of the elections when she saw signs outside the FAC and members of University Democrats tabling outside.
She said that it’s important for students not to vote just for the sake of voting but to be educated about what’s on the ballot.
“I know that I can get consumed by the campus environment, and it’s easy to forget that there’s a world beyond it,” Horsch said.
Who are these other 19% and what are they doing in America? They're politicians on the take(I guess that would be redundant), land developers, and lawyers.