Travis County Voter Registration Stands at 609,224

by: Karl-Thomas Musselman

Tue Oct 21, 2008 at 04:31 PM CDT

Just a quick post to note the total voter registration number that we ended up with here in Austin. Here's the progress made over the year.

July 15: 566,589
Sept 30: 581,951
Oct  20: 609,224

That's an increase of 24,275 registered voters compared to the 2004 general election. While there was around 50,000+ voters added to the roles this year including the primary, the attrition of the voter rolls in Travis because of suspense voters expiring makes the numbers seem less impressive. It's a constant battle to keep up with the voter roles and one of the best ways to maintain it is to have an active electorate that is keeping their registration current.

Tags: Austin, Voter Registration, (All Tags)

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Travis County Voter Registration Stands at 609,224 | 2 comments

The Suspense List (3.00 / 2)

The Suspense List is such a huge problem. Travis Co. needs to do a better job publicizing the fact that if you haven't voted in 2 consecutive federal elections, you could be off the rolls. Voters assume they stay registered forever. I recognize the need to keep the rolls current, but with such a mobile population and so many low-income folks across Austin, it's deeply problematic to me that the County can just kick folks off without any sort of real voter education effort.

I am sure there are many Texans too disgusted with the outcome of the 2000 election who haven't voted since, who are eager to vote now. It horrifies me that many might be turned away.

We registered anyone who said they hadn't voted since 2006 just to be safe. Better safe than suspended, I guess.

by: kath25 @ Tue Oct 21, 2008 at 22:05:21 PM UTC

I agree Katherine (3.00 / 1)

Every voter should be notified that they are being purged and a some Texas counties are not doing that and are violating federal law. The National Voter Registration ACT (NVRA) is still in force and requires that states notify people that they are about to be purged. And the states are not allowed to purge anyone within 90 days prior to an election.

U.S. PIRG recently released a report called "Vanishing Voters -Why Registered Voters Drop Off the Rolls" which surprisingly didn't mention Texas. Seems to be we should have been on that list of states violating NVRA. The report is a short 12 pages and offers some good suggestions for changes.

by: sonia @ Tue Oct 21, 2008 at 22:45:15 PM UTC

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Travis County Voter Registration Stands at 609,224 | 2 comments

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