Turnout the Vote
*Texas Readers! Next Tuesday, Oct. 9th is the deadline to register to vote in November’s election. If you’re not, get registered!*
Florida held their primary election not long ago. The number of people who voted early was almost as high as the total number of people who voted in the last mid-term primary at almost 2 million. In total over 3 million people voted for the primary which is actually getting kind of close to how many (~4mil) turned out in 2016 for the primary, which is a really good sign.
In Texas, in 2014 election only ~1.8mil voted in the primary, 2016 ~4.2mil and this year had ~2.5mil. So turnout in primary elections is up significantly since the last midterm race. Not as high as in presidential years but that’s to be expected.
These results are good signs so far that this midterm election will have a strong turnout. In order for things to really turn around, we need turn out to be phenomenal. If anything is going to change, it has to start there.
For comparison, 2014 had 4.6mil voters in the general election but 2016 had almost 9mil. BUT even 2016 was only 46% of total voters. Right now, the voting age population of Texas is just shy of 20million. While a reasonably impressive 76% are registered to vote that needs to be higher.
I know voting can feel like a pointless exercise. The elections are rigged, my vote won’t count, there’s no difference between the two sides, etc, etc. I can sympathize with those feelings. There are a lot of problems with the American electoral system. BUT most of those problems are easily overcome with people actually voting.
Take Gerrymandering and voter suppression for example. Both of these things work to give officials in power a strong chance of getting reelected. You concentrate all the people who usually vote for your opponent in one district and spread a majority of your supporters in a bunch of districts. Then you make it really difficult for people who oppose you actual vote by limiting polling places, requiring ID that is hard to get, etc.
All of those things suck and are terrible. However, in the end, the election is still decided by a vote. These things are designed to make people not both voting. Because if you decide to vote anyways, they can be overcome.
Gerrymandering is specifically designed around people who are expected to vote. If everyone they weren’t expecting to vote, turns up, then it doesn’t matter. Things can be changed.
We’re never going to see 100% but we can do 60+% America. Let’s do this!
