Phenomenal Voter Reg. Numbers from Travis County
By Byron LaMasters
Between March 9th and September 18th of this year 41,400 people registered to vote in Travis County.
Of those 41,400 new voters, 50% are under 30, and 39% under the age of 25.
This is nearly twice the number of voters registered in Travis during the last presidential election year. During this period in 2000, there were 25,100 voters who registered. Of those new registered voters, 59% cast a ballot.
Local Democratic organizers expect another 20,000 voter registrations in the final two weeks of registration before the October 4th deadline.
I am extremely optimistic about Democrats prospects in Travis County. In 2000, George W. Bush won Travis County 47%-43% (10% for Nader). That year, there were two key trends among voters that are absent this year. First, Ralph Nader was on the ballot, many liberals saw little difference between Bush and Gore, and thus since Texas was not a swing state, many liberal voters cast a Nader protest vote. Second, despite getting roughed up some in the 2000 campaign, many Texas Democrats still saw George W. Bush as their popular homestate governor. This year however, many longtime Austin activists will tell you that the Democratic base is more energized than they have seen in a decade or two.
It would not surprise me to see Kerry approach (or even top) 60% of the vote countywide. I'd be shocked if Democrats don't sweep the countywides as well. The real question will be the two hotly contested state representative races in the northern part of the county (Strama and White). Both are marginally Republican districts, but full of moderate suburbanites who often split their tickets.
Posted by Byron LaMasters at September 20, 2004 02:14 PM
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I talked with the Democracy for America folks who were registering people at the bus pick-up spot for people who were on their way to the ACL Festival. They were delighted, saying that they had registered more people than they had expected.
Our kind of people, too. During the whole three days of the ACL Festival, I saw Kerry shirts and buttons everywhere, and plenty of anti-Bush stuff as well. But not a single pro-Bush or anti-Kerry item was anywhere to be found.
