In ‘voting deserts,’ Democrats and Republicans don’t target nonvoters in Texas’ ‘voting deserts’, so boosting voter turnout is a challenge, advocates say.
Voter turnout statistics show just 32% of newly registered voters in North Texas cast a ballot in the 2022 midterm election.Guadalupe Ruiz poses for a photo in Dallas on Tuesday, Sept. 10, 2024. Ruiz, 69, didn't vote until she was 60.Almost 10 years ago, Guadalupe Ruiz put on her favorite outfit, walked into a southern Dallas polling place and — for the first time in her life — voted.
Guadalupe Ruiz poses for a photo in Dallas on Tuesday, Sept. 10, 2024. Ruiz, 69, didn't vote until she was 60.For the 2022 general election, Dallas, Collin, Grayson, Hunt, Kaufman and Rockwall counties had a combined 124,358 new registered voters in the previous year. Of the total, 40,324 cast ballots.
“The best rate of return is to focus on people that have a history of voting,” Langston said. “You have to be an extremely well-funded campaign to layer-in residents with no history of voting.” “Basically what happens in the science of elections is that you invest your money into the high voting turnout communities or the high-capacity voters. You don’t take into account the other communities,” Luna said. “Our nonprofit does the exact opposite. We bring attention and resources and focus to these communities.”
in Texas, up from 13.6 million in 2014, the same year Ruiz voted for Davis, who lost the race for governor to Republican Greg Abbott.Even so, only 18% of registered voters participated in the Texas Republican and Democratic primaries last March — well under the national “It takes at least three touches to get someone out to vote. When you talk about somebody who is an emerging voter, you’re probably talking about seven to 10 touches,” Birabil said.“A lot of times, political parties just don’t have the funding to spend the time and effort in getting that voter to convert from low propensity to an actual voter,” she said.
Texas Organizing Project stays in contact with voters year-round, not just during election season. The group seeks to empower voters to have a voice on issues related to criminal justice reform, voting rights, affordable housing, immigration, health care and climate change.
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