Can Texas Democrats count on the college vote during the pandemic?
During nonpandemic times, the West Mall at the University of Texas is chock-a-block with college clubs, including campus political organizations pushing would-be voters to register.
But during a recent sunny lunch hour, with students largely taking classes online and close contact a no-no, the mall was completely empty.
A similar quiet has descended on once-busy college quads across the country, with potentially big political implications.
There are now more than 16.6 million registered voters in Texas — 1.5 million more than in 2016 — but the coronavirus pandemic has dampened the rate of new voter registrations. In the first eight months of 2020, 843,160 new voters were added to the rolls, a 20% drop-off from the same period in 2016 — even as the state’s population continues to boom. That slowdown has been especially true in big urban counties, analyses by the American-Statesman have found.
Read more: https://www.statesman.com/news/20200928/can-texas-democrats-count-on-college-vote-during-pandemic