COUNTING and COLLECTING (Votes and Trash)

COUNTING AND COLLECTING (Votes and Trash)

What becomes visible when policy is counted—and when it is not collected?

COUNTING and COLLECTING (Votes and Trash) is an evening organized as a public forum ahead of the November 2026 election to examine the post-election process and the counting of votes and the persistent and highly visible civic issue of illegal dumping. Bringing together elected officials, policymakers, community organizers, and activists, the program considers Houston and Texas in relation to the national political landscape and asks how policy is enacted, experienced, and made visible.

VOTES — in anticipation of the November election, looks beyond campaigns and candidates to what happens after a ballot is cast. The counting, certification, administration, and interpretation of election results constitute an essential but largely non-visible infrastructure of democracy.

The discussion considers how votes will be counted and can be translated into political capital in Houston and Texas; how local and state electoral systems operate in relation to the national election; and what happens when political authority and policy diverge across municipal, county, state, and federal governments. Rather than a forum to predict the outcome of the election,

VOTES asks what structures will determine how that outcome is counted, understood, and ultimately acted upon.

TRASH — if the infrastructure surrounding the counting of votes is largely non-visible, illegal dumping is its opposite: an immediately visible manifestation of how public systems and policies fail to operate in equal measure for all. Across Houston, illegally dumped construction debris, household waste, tires, and other materials accumulate in public spaces, with neighborhoods of color disproportionately confronting the consequences. TRASH brings together local activists and organizations working directly on the issue to examine why illegal dumping persists, what policies and enforcement mechanisms currently exist, whether they are effective, and what needs to be done.

The discussion asks not simply how trash can be removed, but what its continued accumulation reveals about infrastructure, municipal services, environmental justice, enforcement, public investment, and political responsibility.

The forum is a public program organized by political strategist Evan Choate and conceptual artist Mary Ellen Carroll as a part of their career survey at the Contemporary Arts Museum Houston, How To Talk Dirty and Influence People curated by Rebecca Matalon.

VOTES | 6PM

Moderated by: Molly Cook, Texas State Senator

Teneshia Hudspeth, Harris County Clerk and Chief Election Official

Annette Ramirez, Harris County Voter Registrar

TRASH | 7:30PM

Moderated by: Martin Melosi, University of Houston, Cullen Professor Emeritus of History

Bryce Randall, Policy Director,Office of Council Member Alejandra Salinas, City of Houston

Andrew Beaver, Clean the Block, Houston

Joetta Stevenson, Greater Fifth Ward Super Neighborhood President