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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsTexas closes hundreds of polling sites, making it harder for minorities to vote
Guardian analysis finds that places where black and Latino population is growing by the largest numbers experienced the majority of closures and could benefit Republicans
Last year, Texas led the US south in an unenviable statistic: closing down the most polling stations, making it more difficult for people to vote and arguably benefiting Republicans.
A report by civil rights group The Leadership Conference Education Fund found that 750 polls had been closed statewide since 2012.
Long considered a Republican bastion, changing racial demographics in the state have caused leading Democrats to recast Texas as a potential swing state. Texas Democratic party official Manny Garcia has called it the biggest battleground state in the country.
The closures could exacerbate Texass already chronically low voter turnout rates, to the advantage of incumbent Republicans. Ongoing research by University of Houston political scientists Jeronimo Cortina and Brandon Rottinghaus indicates that people are less likely to vote if they have to travel farther to do so, and the effect is disproportionately greater for some groups of voters, such as Latinxs.
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2020/mar/02/texas-polling-sites-closures-voting
oasis
(49,381 posts)mucifer
(23,539 posts)oasis
(49,381 posts)mucifer
(23,539 posts)oasis
(49,381 posts)MagickMuffin
(15,937 posts)Hey in Tarrant county we have finally gotten touch-screens. How fun, now that there is a virus amongst us.
They also decided to make it where you can vote at any precinct on election day, I think that they are closing a lot of polling stations so the decision was made to close most of the polling locations. At the time when it was announced I thought this would be a good thing. Then I learned that there would be fewer polling locations, I wondered what the impact would be. Now I know, keep the largest growing population from voting by not providing polling locations.
I am not working the election this year, since I was assigned to another location then where I have worked since 2008 and is my precinct that I am the chair of. Which was unfortunately a decision by the democratic party.
BeckyDem
(8,361 posts)MagickMuffin
(15,937 posts)that would lean democratic. Hopefully it will not work and deter anyone. Beat them at their own game by voting them out.
BeckyDem
(8,361 posts)MagickMuffin
(15,937 posts)A whole lot of precincts got shut down, which I don't see as a good thing. My neighborhood is changing from a white population to a more diversified one.
Hell even Kroger is closing down it's store which has been here forever. We've been shopping there for 40 years. And now they are cut and running.
Demovictory9
(32,453 posts)DFW
(54,369 posts)Whatever he may be about, the general welfare of the people of Texas, and upholding their rights as U.S. citizens, is NOT it.