At the Bottom of Tuesday's Ballot: Houston Decides Marijuana and No-Knock Warrants, Cy-Fair a $1.63 Billion Bond, League City Its Flock Cameras
The top of Tuesday's ballot is statewide. The bottom is Houston's own: a combined city proposition pairing marijuana decriminalization with an end to no-knock warrants, a five-part Cypress-Fairbanks ISD tax-and-bond package worth $1.63 billion, and a League City measure that would switch off the city's Flock Safety cameras within 72 hours of a certified result.
HOUSTON - Some of Tuesday's most local decisions sit at the very bottom of the ballot. Voters inside Houston's city limits will find a combined proposition, placed on the ballot by Ground Game Texas through a petition, that would decriminalize possession of small amounts of marijuana and eliminate the Houston Police Department's ability to serve no-knock warrants, the Houston Press reported in its Election Day guide.
The measure is expected to pass, and the Press reported it is not expected to drastically change how the department already operates: Mayor John Whitmire has said possession of less than two ounces of marijuana is already a low enforcement priority, and that officers do not enter homes unannounced to serve warrants. Ground Game Texas has run marijuana decriminalization measures since 2021, passing them in Austin, Bastrop, Dallas, Denton, Elgin, Harker Heights, Killeen, Lockhart and San Marcos - Houston would be the group's largest city yet.
In Cypress-Fairbanks ISD, the ballot is a package. Proposition A, a 12-cent Voter-Approved Tax Rate Election, would fund teacher and staff compensation, campus safety personnel, instructional materials, programs and transportation, and would generate about $103 million. The bond propositions behind it total $1.63 billion: Proposition B, $1.3 billion for facility renovations, technology and cybersecurity and new buses with three-point seat belts; Proposition C, $256 million for instructional technology; Proposition D, $60.8 million for athletic fields, tracks and scoreboards; and Proposition E, $20.1 million for school swimming pools. The district faced a $67.4 million budget deficit earlier this year, a fact both sides are using.
And in League City, voters take up a technology question no other area city has put to a ballot: the Flock Safety automated license-plate cameras. If the measure passes, the city council will order every Flock camera in the city disabled within 72 hours of the election results being certified. Polls across Harris County and the surrounding counties are open Tuesday from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m.
