October 6th is the last day to register voters for the 2008 elections. It is time for everyone to get involved and make a difference. Anyone in Texas can be sworn in as a deputy voter registrar and register voters. All you have to do is go to your county Tax Assessor office and be sworn in. Voter registration is at an all time high across the nation but we can do better with your help.
Follow me below the fold to find out all the ways you can help register voters and help make this the most historic election in Texas history.
There has been some talk about having the state delay the Oct 6 voter registration deadline for the counties affected by Hurricane Ike. The proposal seems to be headed nowhere according to the Austin Chronicle.
"The secretary of state's office has been in touch with those counties that were impacted, and they're not getting any indication that there are any problems," said Perry spokeswoman Allison Castle. "There's still plenty of time to register, and you can do that from anywhere; you don't even have to be in your home county. You can go to the secretary of state's website, fill out and print a registration form, and stick it in the mail."
We contacted a few voter registrars in affected counties, and they agreed - although, notably, we were unable to contact officials with Galveston County, the hardest hit. Officials with Waller, Brazoria, and Jefferson counties said they planned no such request, and Harris County Director of Voter Registration George Hammerlein said, "We're on top of it. There was plenty of time before Ike to register, and in the weeks after. ... There is still plenty of reaction time." Hammerlein noted that even at emergency supplies stations after Ike, registration cards have been made available.
It may be in part that they are handling it just fine. It also may be that if they moved back the deadline, it would give local registrars even less time to process the cards, something that they loathe doing.
Hey, I'll volunteer for a "Tedious Data Entry for Democracy Team" if needed.
This is exciting news and we're seeing it all over Texas as we exceed the maximum voter registration record set in the 2004 election.
Rio Grande Guardian: In the 2004 presidential election, the county had 269,437 registered voters. The deadline to register for the Nov. 4 election is Monday, Oct. 6.
...
By early afternoon on Tuesday, the number of registered voters in the county had jumped to 299,672, Elections Department staff member Melissa Alvarez told the Guardian. "I think we are going to reach the 300,000 mark quite soon," she said. "We are very busy."
Hidalgo County gave Ron Kirk 71% of the vote in his 2002 Senate race (and Sanchez 68% for Governor that same election), or a 30,000 vote margin from 68,000 voters. In the 2004 presidential election, Hidalgo cast just under 114,000 total voters out of the then record 270,000 registered (42% turnout) when there was no U.S. Senate race in Texas.
So, just for grins, let's say Noriega is able to sustain 70% of the vote in Hidalgo as a funded Hispanic statewide candidate. And let's say turnout increases slightly to 45% (though I think it could be higher). And lets say that after another 2 weeks of voter registration they get the Hidalgo registered voter total to 310,000... the resulting math would give Noriega a 55,800 vote margin out of Hidalgo County.
Compare that to the Democratic vote margins received by our candidates in U.S. Senate races in Hidalgo County since 2000.
2000: +7,723 (Kelly over Hutchison)
2002: +29,505 (Kirk over Cornyn)
2004: no race
2006: +4,940 (Radnofsky over Hutchison)
2008: +55,800 (possible Noriega over Cornyn)
I know Travis County is looking to add over 25,000 voters to the rolls before the Oct 6th deadline and efforts in Dallas and Houston will pile on more as well. And as I have heard from those doing analysis on our Austin registrations, the new ones appear to be at least 80% Democratic.
This is why, with the lack of polling in Texas, our Senate race may indeed be the sleeper race that we've been talking about for a year. With the urban metros finally pumping out positive vote tallies for Democrats, those counties combined with the border vote could very well offset the slew of smaller counties where we do poorly and elect a Democrat statewide.
Update: El Paso reports that they are seeing a 25% increase in their total voter registration rates, in large part due to a sustained effort since 2 years ago that is now 80% towards it's goal of 50,000 new registered voters there. More good news.
Update 2: Wichita County reports voter reg is on the rise and it's been "the younger people".
Update 3: In San Antonio, officials are predicting between 67-70% countywide turnout and voter registration totals are about to top the 910,000 peak from 2004.
And people have been registering ever since. Texas already has passed the registered voter total recorded in 2004, 13.1 million. Since the March 4 primary, some 400,000 voters have registered statewide.
The state's six largest counties, including Bexar, have added 161,779 voters since the primaries, including 21,659 in Bexar, according to the secretary of state. Harris County alone accounts for 62,286.
Gary Scharrer reports on some very encouraging news on the Texas Politics blog. Texas voter registration is near record levels.
By late Friday afternoon, election officials had already tallied more than 13 million registered voters. The voter registration record of 13.1 million was set for the 2004 presidential election.
Mail delivery of voter registration cards over the past few days have come in boxes weighing 20 to 30 pounds.
How many cards?
"Quite a few," according to elections officials, who don't stop to count them.
They have hired temporary workers to process the voter registration cards.
Of course the presidential race is affecting this but it is also being enabled by massive efforts by the coordinated campaigns in the major counties. And I don't doubt that increased voter registration helps Democrats as voters who typically vote our way are unregistered in greater numbers (minorities, students, etc).
I'd be curious to hear what voter registration stories or activities are going on in your area.
(Impressive news for those who have worked with or used Project Vote. - promoted by Karl-Thomas Musselman)
Those who read our diaries know Project Vote as the organization that fights voter suppression and helps election protection efforts. What you may not know is that in addition to being on the frontlines in the fight for voter rights, Project Vote is also the largest voter registration organization in the United States.
Since 2003 over one-third of all registration applications submitted through voter registration drives in the U.S. have come through Project Vote. In 2003-04 we submitted 1.13 million applications, in 2006 just over 547,000, and by Friday we will collect our 1,000,000th registration for 2007-08. Half of our registrants are under 30, and almost all of them are African-Americans or Latinos. One-third of them have never registered before in their lives.
With one month left in the drive we have 270,000 more registrations to collect and you can help!
We've all heard about the potential Houston has for going blue this year. If you live around the Houston area, you can help get it started by making sure registration drives in Houston get off to a good start.
Barack Obama's 50-State Voter Registration Drive is coming to Austin, on Saturday, May 10th. Obama is already focused on making more voters eligible to join his movement for change, but he needs your help.
Head over to my.BarackObama.com and sign up here for the event. If each of us works to register new voters, we can grow our party and increase the support for Barack Obama.
On Super Tuesday, the nation saw the growing influence of the Asian American vote. Texas has the fourth largest Asian American population in the United States and the Asian American population continues to grow at high rates.
For Democrats in Texas, winning the Asian American vote means being the first to reach out to this oft-ignored constituency. To that end, our organization is hosting an event this Wednesday to raise money to turn Central Texas Asian Americans blue! We'll also be honoring three terrific local Democrats. Come enjoy the free food at the event before heading over to the US Senate debate between Rep. Rick Noriega and Ray McMurrey at 8 PM.
Capital Area Asian American Democrats
2008 Fundraiser and Democratic Awards Ceremony
Wednesday, February 13
5:30 PM - 7:30 PM
AFL-CIO
1106 Lavaca St.
2008 Honorees: Lifetime Achievement Award - Judge Jeanne Meurer
Democratic Legislator of the Year - Representative Mark Strama
Democratic Activist of the Year - Nicholas P. Chu
Money raised will help support CAAAD's 2008 in 2008 Project to increase Asian American voter registration and turnout in Travis County for the 2008 municipal and general elections and our efforts on behalf of our endorsed candidates.
Appetizers and heavy hors d'oeuvres generously provided by Buffet Palace (4608 West Gate Blvd, Austin, TX).
For sponsorship or questions, please contact Ramey Ko at 512-577-5729 or ramey.ko@gmail.com.
Please make checks payable to "CAAAD Asian American Progress PAC." Tickets can be purchased at the door.
Pol. adv. paid for by CAAAD Asian American Progress PAC
I received my notice and re-registration form in the mail last Friday, signed by Travis County Tax Assessor-Collector, Nelda Wells Spears.
I vote in every election including the most recent Constitutional Election, so I was very surprise to find myself on the suspense list.
The most infuriating part of this is that the form that Nelda is sending out to the thousands of purged voters REQUIRES THE VOTER to respond.
All of us who were purged have already done our part. We have registered to vote and it was a mistake of the Tax Office that took many of us off the list and put many more on the suspense list.
Either add us back to the active voter rolls or show us the part of Texas Statute that requires voters who have been accidentally removed to re-register.
