Record 14M Texans register to vote

[toddwv]

This could be interesting. Doesn't state the parties they registered with, but typically an increase voter registration is positive for the Democratic Party.
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AUSTIN — More than 14 million Texans have registered to vote in the November elections, the secretary of state’s office announced Thursday, calling the number a record high.

The total marks an increase of 2.8 percent since the most recent presidential contest and 5.7 percent since the last time candidates for governor were on the ballot. In Bexar and Dallas counties — two of the most populous in the state — voter registration outpaced expected population growth from 2012 to 2014.

Harris County Tax Assessor-Collector Mike Sullivan said the trend was impressive given the fact it’s an off-year election.
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http://blog.chron.com/texaspolitics/2014/10/record-14m-texans-register-to-vote/

How cool would a blue Texas (or even purple for that matter) be in a non-Presidential election year?

[davidpdx]

1. What is the percentage of Republicans to Democrats to Non-affiliated in Texas?

I'm curious to know. I have donated to Davis as the governor's race in Oregon is safe.

[vlyons]

2. Texas is not blue yet

But it's getting there. I would be very surprised (and pleasantly so) if Wendy Davis won, but there's still far too many Hispanics, Blacks, and youth who don't vote. And could not care less about politics. I live in deep East texas, which is gung ho Baptist bible belt, and they foam at the mouth at the mention of Obama's name. Still, I think this next election will be a shocker to the GOP, when they see how much the Dem turnout has increased.

Although Davis has a lot of people excited, especially women, she is really not all that great a candidate, but definitely better than any the Dems have put up for the last 20 years. She should have been much more of an advocate for the minimum wage. That really rings a bell for the myriad of Texas low wage workers. When it comes to politics, texas really stinks. Ted Cruz country unfortunately.

[kag]

3. Oh?

"I live in deep East texas, which is gung ho Baptist bible belt"

I'm curious where. I live in Colorado now, but I grew up in Longview in the late 70's, early 80's.

I happened to be in Austin visiting a brother on the night that the big abortion filibuster happened. I have never been so proud to be a native Texan as that night. Wish I'd gone down to the capitol to see it in person.

[vlyons]

9. I'm in a very rural area

about 1 hr south of Tyler. Lots of Cruz bumper stickers all over. I did see some Davis yard signs in Jacksonville. My county (Cherokee) has a very active Dem party. Mostly they put their energy into supporting county commissioners and the more sane and rational "independents" that run for sheriff, county judge, etc. Lot of racism here. Austin is a liberal town. I went UT there back in the 60s. Rural texas is still very very backwards, prejudiced, and down-right stupid.

[kag]

10. "backwards, prejudiced, and down-right stupid"

Sounds like it hasn't changed much. Last time I was there was about twenty years ago for a high school reunion, but my brothers still have lots of friends in the area, so they get back a little more often than I do.

I was at UT in the mid-eighties. I come from a huge, extended family of Longhorns. I even tried to get my son to go there (but he chose U of Illinois).

With the advent of Facebook I reconnected with a few old high school friends who still live in Longview. I can't believe how racist, religious, and just plain dumb they sound. I hope I was never that stupid, but I fear... Ah well, better late than never, I guess.

Thanks for letting me ramble on. I do get a little curious about the old neighborhood sometimes.

[vlyons]

18. no-problemo :)

When I graduated from UT, I fled to Calif, where I lived for 30+ years. I keep telling the young people I meet to leave Texas and go somewhere else. Anywhere else! See the world. Learn how other people live. Get exposed to new cultures, new people, new ideas. Expand your horizons. Elevate your mind. But in truth, people only hear what they are ready to hear. It's takes a curious and adventurous spirit to try something new. I think that's why the RWers keep people hunkered down with fear mongering. If you had a bunch of Sihks or Muslins or Buddhists or Hindis or Vietnamese move into your neighborhood, you might discover that they aren't so bad afterall.

retiring back to Texas was reverse culture shock. I had completely forgotten about segregation and blue laws and dry counties (no liquor sales). However a lot of residential property that I looked at in these dry counties had wet bars.

[kag]

19. "When I graduated from UT, I fled to Calif" Me too!

I moved to LA about three days after graduation! I didn't stay as long as you, though. I was there for about six years, then I met/married my husband and "fled" to Colorado. LA is/was no place to raise kids, and we knew we wanted a family. We've been here for a little over twenty years now.

I come down to Texas a couple of times a year, though, to visit family. They're mostly in Austin now, so it's not too painful. I couldn't live in Longview again if I were blind, deaf and dumb! I think I would SMELL bigotry and hypocrisy. It's just that thick.

When I lived there, Gregg county butted up against a dry county, so people would come just over the border to buy their booze. There were these rows of liquor stores right on the border. We called it "Whiskey Bend" and all the kids were taught to fear it. (Actually, it was pretty scary because of all the drunk drivers.)

[Skittles]

17. she had me right there

literally standing up and fighting for what she believes

[bigdarryl]

8. Wendy Davis isn't a good candidate?And Abbott is

[TxDemChem]

4. I'm glad to see an increase on voter registrations.

I just hope enough dems GOTV in this off-year. Hubby and I will be voting early on Monday.

[ReRe]

5. 14 mil out of 25.4 mil

That's over half the population. Come on Texas... get out and vote!

[PDittie]

7. Texans don't register by party

Much of this has to be considered the efforts of BGTX. If 75% of these lean D -- and all of them get back to the polling place -- then we might see some surprises on Election Night. I'm not going to hold my breath, but this is good news.

[freshwest]

11. Question, not to put a damper on the enthusiasm:

What percentage of these registered voters can be turned away at the polls for voter ID - that is, did they have to supply ID to get registered?

Where I live now, to get registered that is taken care in advance, and we don't have to jump through hoops at polling places. Partly because we allow permanent absentee voting by mail, so unless we are disenfranchised some other way, our right to vote is not questioned by the whims of GOPers.

Unless our recently sworn in GOP elections official starts playing games, we'll avoid the goat rope other states have had. Although the GOP attempted to interefere with the voting here in outrageous ways for over a decade.

At this time, it appears the State of Texas effort to stop the Democratic vote is dead in the water, but they are still fighting it out. This will be to the wire and may convince some who registered that their cause is lost. And the groups that would have the hardest time with ID or have jobs that don't allow them the ability to settle all the ID issues in a timely manner, will not vote.

[PDittie]

12. Most of the voter registration drives BGTX conducted

coached the sign-ups to make certain they understood the need for a valid picture ID. The law has been in place for over a year now and last fall's elections -- mostly of the municipal variety, which is to say very low turnout -- were conducted under its requirements.

To answer your question, there's just no good way to know. Since these are new enrollees, and not folks like seniors who stopped driving in the past couple of years and let their license lapse, for one example, there is confidence that they understood what they had to do to get legal.

[aquart]

13. Could they registef without that ID?

[PDittie]

16. I believe the answer to that question is yes

As I understand it, they would need to produce birth certificate or citizenship papers at the the time they register, but not a photo ID. Most new registrants don't have the same challenges that older and poorer voters (the ones typically without ID) have in that regard.

The voter ID lawsuit plaintiffs contend -- and the federal judge who struck the law down last week concurred -- there are 600,000 Texans who do not have the necessary identification to vote. Many of these people (poor, African American and Latino) have voted for decades with just a voter registration card.

http://takingnote.blogs.nytimes.com/2014/10/16/voter-id-confusion-on-top-of-chaos/

[freshwest]

15. That is good news. And the numbers of new voters is impressive!

[SmittynMo]

14. I think that Texans are done listening to all the far right bullshit

Go Texas!!! It will be nice to be treated like a normal human being again.

[GOLGO 13]

20. Go blue Texas!

Got family there that are helping the cause. Hopeful for change in the next 6 years.

[Carl anga]

21. Are We going to cry or.... ..... FIGHT ??

How is this possible?
after 8 years destroying the country and 6 years sabotaging America from congress still republicans ,with that record, will take the senate ?
very simple! REPUBLICANS criminal minds go and LIE and LIE once, twice and a thousand times on everybody's face every second, every minute and so on... WHILE democrats do almost nothing to stop them.
GET UP Democrats!!! let's use all the media available,minute after minute , EVERYBODY need TO SCRUB on all the American people's face THE CRIMINAL REPUBLICAN RECORD.

[hamsterjill]

22. I hope so!!!

We are working hard down here in Texas to take it back to blue!

I'm concerned about the governor's race. I don't think Wendy will win, unfortunately. There are still too many members of the "good ole boys" club, especially business men. If I'm wrong (and I voted for her at lunch today), I will gladly jump for joy. In fact, it might take days for me to settle down.

If Leticia doesn't win, I'm literally going to be frightened. Kirkpatrick is a nut job in more ways than one. If he wins, we are doomed.

[Laura PourMeADrink]

23. Battleground Texas ! It's working ! nt