Don't EVER doubt high voter turnout benefits Dems--it DOES

[Moonbeam_Starlight]

I was reading the Ft. Worth Star-Telegram today and apparently SOME readers are incensed that the Star-Telegram did a recent series ADVOCATING EVERYONE VOTING! They wrote letters saying "certain people shouldn't be ALLOWED to vote" and "only the older and better informed should be allowed to vote" and even suggesting TESTS should be given to voters (anyone hearing echoes of pre-Voting Rights Act???). I was appalled, but not surprised, and I bet I can guess the political affiliation of every one of those angry letter writers.

Last night, I was on DU very late and looking at a thread that was started with that map from 2000 showing which counties voted bush and which counties went for Gore in the US. Looking at the Texas map, I found that Robertson County, just north of Texas A&M University, went for Gore in 2000. Heh? Rural Texas county NOT on the Mexican border???? White pop is 66%....not that highly educated. Same thing happened in a few counties in east Texas as well.

So wondering what those counties were doing right, I did a little searching and came up with an interesting recent article from the Bryan College Station Eagle, the closest major (LOL!) paper to Robertson County about how Robertson County has had suspiciously high (!!!) voter turnout since at least 1988. It's also been going Dem a lot since 1988. Same thing happening in those east Texas counties.

Here's the article:

http://www.theeagle.com/campaign2000/localregional/0320...

Please notice the Robertson County GOP bitching a lot about high voter turnout and "the Democratic machine" and insinuating fraud.

WHAT is fraudulent about 60% voter turnout, I ask you?

I have two points here: if you are in a red or swing state, please find out if there were any counties that went to Gore that you would think wouldn't. Once you do, see if you can find out what happened. Whatever happened there, needs to happen again.

If it can happen in Robertson County, Texas, it can happen everywhere guys. I KNEW getting out the vote was crucial, but this just slammed it home for me.

THIS is why reps are so afraid of high voter turnout. The PEOPLE vote Democrat.

[Moonbeam_Starlight]

1. Kick

[babylonsister]

2. My prayers would be answered if TX

EVER went Dem. And though I live here, I'm not even from here. But it sucks to be in a state where it's so hard to do much of value because the resulting vote is supposedly predetermined already.

[Moonbeam_Starlight]

7. But see it's not

it's not predetermined. Take Robertson County. If you look at the stereotypes of who votes Rep and who votes Dem and the demographics that go along with those stereotypes, there is NO REASON in the WORLD that county should have gone to Gore. But it did. Not only that, it went to Clinton in 96 and in 92. It doesn't have a lot of minorities, it's rural, there IS a large university nearby, but it's one of the most conservative universities in the nation! There's not anything that would make you think that county would be Dem.

Apparently what they have going for them is a kick-ass county Dem party that works their patookuses off. They get people registered to vote and they make sure they vote.

That's making me feel very good that I focused a lot of my energy on registering voters this year. We've registered thousands of new voters in my suburb of Dallas.

[mourningdove92]

3. Excellent, Moonbeam.

Are you in Texas? I know I sound crazy, but I think Texas is going to do better than expected. It is probably too much to hope we will go blue, but hey, I can dream can't I? I do believe that it will be closer in Texas than expected.

Sure do wish we could see a poll showing Texas leaning Kerry. Bet that would pull Smirk off the campaign trail and scuttling back to Texas. I could put up with him here for the last week or two before the election, if that meant he would keep his happy butt out of the swing states.

[cheshire]

6. I too pray and hope Texas goes for Kerry or close. That would let him know

[Moonbeam_Starlight]

8. I don't think we'll go blue

not this time. But I am very interested in seeing the numbers. Gore got 39% of the vote here in 2000 and Kerry, I believe, is polling a bit better than that now. I have no doubt Kerry will come in higher than that, no doubt. THe only question is how much higher.

And the urban counties in TX REALLY need to be blue, there's no reason why they aren't. Wait--yes there is--depressed voter turnout. I'm hoping that has changed!

[wildeyed]

4. I think voter turnout is the key.

And it falls to the better informed and more motivated of us to make sure it happens. And we need to make sure it happens consistently, from now on, not just this next election.

This is how the RW did it, too. They started small, won school board and county council seats. Built up power until they owned the presidency. We can fight back using the same democratic tools.

BTW, the link is dead.

[Moonbeam_Starlight]

9. Yep

That is what the Dems are doing in my city. We are keeping fundies off the school board (great results in the election in May!!) and off city council. We are probably (fingers crossed) about to get a Democratic state representative (Austin) for the first time in 12 years. The Dems in my city have become VERY active and organized (big key right there).

[wildeyed]

12. !!!!!!

:yourock:

[cheshire]

5. There is a city data site. includes education level averages of citizens

it would be interesting to see this in connection with your site. She is in a high education town primarily Dems.

[Moonbeam_Starlight]

10. Try this link

http://www.theeagle.com/campaign2000/localregional/032004robertson.htm

[Wright Patman]

11. Not to rain on the parade,

but a county that is 34 percent nonwhite seems pretty likely to go Democrat in any event, to me.

I live in rural NE Texas and my county is at least 85 percent white. About 11 percent is black. The rest consists of a a small but growing percentage of Hispanics who generally do not vote in large numbers.

Even so, it has never elected a GOP countywide office holder. It won't go for Kerry, though. But I can almost guarantee it would if it were 34 percent nonwhite, but only if the nonwhites were black. The Hispanics just don't turn out to vote proportionate to their numbers.