Literally… It came too soon because the precinct ballots (in Harris County, at least) were literally still en route to Reliant Stadium for counting.
Below is the email I sent to the Bill White campaign:
To have conceded barely more than an hour after the polls closed with 18% of the vote counted and the vast majority of Harris County’s ballots literally en route to Reliant Center for counting – and I know this because I was a poll watcher — is really sad.
It’s like saying that the people who actually went to the polls today didn’t even matter. Their votes didn’t remotely effect the outcome. I think you should have waited at least a couple more hours, if only so the voters could feel they mattered to the outcome.
I’m very disappointed.
Mike Honig
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Great work keep it coming
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Why postpone the inevitable? He was going to lose from the get-go.
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Thanks for writing, James.
The inevitability, or lack thereof, is not the issue here. It’s the disrespect to the voters.
White resigned on the strength of exit polls and news organizations’ predicted winner, with only a tiny fraction of cast ballots actually counted. If we depended solely on exit polls, it’s worth noting that John Kerry won the 2004 presidential election (and may in fact have, but that’s another story). As a poll watcher that day, I can tell you for sure that the ballots of voters who had actually taken the trouble to go to the polls on election day had not been counted in any significant numbers, if at all.
As a nation, it’s always supposed to be our goal to motivate as many voters as possible to participate in elections. Among those who require an extra bit of encoiuragement, what message is sent when their candidate concedes before their votes could possibly have been counted?
I’m a diligent and dedicated voter, and even I found White’s early concession profoundly discouraging.
For the record, although I was a White supporter, this is not a paprtisan issue. If Rick Perry had conceded barely an hour after the polls closed, I would have been happier, true, but it would have been no less pathetic.
Anyone who bothers to vote deserves the respect of at least feeling like their ballot was counted. White’s early concession disrespected those voters.
Imho.
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