I visit Texas kinda often and it’s crazy how many people just don’t bother to vote, because they’ve made it so hard to vote. Insanely long lines waiting in the heat, registration issues, and just a general feeling that their vote won’t matter. They are amazed that my state basically treats voting day like celebrating a holiday
I visit Texas kinda often and it’s crazy how many people just don’t bother to vote, because they’ve made it so hard to vote.
There’s that, but there’s also a lot of learned helplessness. People assume that the state will always be red, so they don’t vote, thereby ensuring the state stays red and reinforcing the learned helplessness and teaching it to new generations. It doesn’t help that vulnerable minorities are fleeing the state, for understandable reasons, naturally, but everyone who leaves is one less vote against the entrenched republican hegemony.
Much of Republican policy in the state is centered around preserving this hegemony for its own sake. If you look at Republican policy through that lens, it becomes clear that Republicans have identified which demographics are likely to vote for Democrats, and are deliberately implementing policies to incarcerate or drive off those demographics.
When that dam finally breaks, Republicans are gonna have a very hard time coming back from it. Not only at the state level, but at the national level. So if Allred wins, expect every possible dirty trick. Expect the Supreme Court to get involved.
Idk why people procrastinate and go the last day. Texas was the first state to allow early voting in person(1980). It’s been around long enought that everyone should know about it. The people I’ve talked to who don’t vote just come up with excuses about not voting and the voter apathy is really strong here. The idea that your vote doesn’t count also needs to go away, TX has been very close to turning blue for a while. In 2016, Hillary needed only 5% more of the registered voters to win TX, in 2020 Biden needed less than 4%. In fast in 2020, Biden won more votes in TX than NY and Trump won more votes in CA than TX. We are so close, people just need to look up their local polling place and get there. Some are even open on the weekends.
Edit: I’ve only waited in line once to vote, because I always vote in the first 2 weeks of voting and that was for less than 10 minutes. The long line excuse only works on the final day to vote with everyone procrastinating. The polls are typically open the same hours during the second week of voting as the last day, so there isn’t really any special reason to go on the last day.
I visit Texas kinda often and it’s crazy how many people just don’t bother to vote, because they’ve made it so hard to vote. Insanely long lines waiting in the heat, registration issues, and just a general feeling that their vote won’t matter. They are amazed that my state basically treats voting day like celebrating a holiday
There’s that, but there’s also a lot of learned helplessness. People assume that the state will always be red, so they don’t vote, thereby ensuring the state stays red and reinforcing the learned helplessness and teaching it to new generations. It doesn’t help that vulnerable minorities are fleeing the state, for understandable reasons, naturally, but everyone who leaves is one less vote against the entrenched republican hegemony.
Much of Republican policy in the state is centered around preserving this hegemony for its own sake. If you look at Republican policy through that lens, it becomes clear that Republicans have identified which demographics are likely to vote for Democrats, and are deliberately implementing policies to incarcerate or drive off those demographics.
When that dam finally breaks, Republicans are gonna have a very hard time coming back from it. Not only at the state level, but at the national level. So if Allred wins, expect every possible dirty trick. Expect the Supreme Court to get involved.
Idk why people procrastinate and go the last day. Texas was the first state to allow early voting in person(1980). It’s been around long enought that everyone should know about it. The people I’ve talked to who don’t vote just come up with excuses about not voting and the voter apathy is really strong here. The idea that your vote doesn’t count also needs to go away, TX has been very close to turning blue for a while. In 2016, Hillary needed only 5% more of the registered voters to win TX, in 2020 Biden needed less than 4%. In fast in 2020, Biden won more votes in TX than NY and Trump won more votes in CA than TX. We are so close, people just need to look up their local polling place and get there. Some are even open on the weekends.
Edit: I’ve only waited in line once to vote, because I always vote in the first 2 weeks of voting and that was for less than 10 minutes. The long line excuse only works on the final day to vote with everyone procrastinating. The polls are typically open the same hours during the second week of voting as the last day, so there isn’t really any special reason to go on the last day.