Early voting is underway for the Nov. 4 election, and you may be asking yourself, what’s the point? Don’t worry, you’re in good company. Texans love to gripe about property taxes, potholes, and school funding, but when it’s time to vote for the people who actually fix (or ignore) those things, most folks suddenly remember […]
Tag: Voting
Posted inPolitics
Why Were Democrats So Wrong About Latino Voters?
It’s 2016, and I’m listening as pundits, analysts, and armchair experts make assumptions about the “Latino vote.” It’s 2020, and I’m listening as pundits, analysts, and armchair experts make assumptions about the “Latino vote.” It’s 2024, and I’m — you get the point. With every passing election, the “Latino vote” has become an almost mythical […]
Posted inOpinion
Think Voting Isn’t Worth It? You’re Doing It Wrong
There’s an old trope in Texas politics that “Texas isn’t a red state, it’s a non-voting state.” And it’s more or less true — fewer than half of the Texans who are registered to vote cast a ballot in the 2022 gubernatorial election. In total, nearly 14 million Texans who were able to vote chose […]
Posted inCulture
At 18, He Had to Pay a Poll Tax. Paxton’s ‘Illegal’ Raids Don’t Scare Him.
When Hector Flores turned 18, he had to pay to vote. More than 60 years later, he can’t remember the exact rate of the poll tax, maybe $2.50 or $2.75. But vivid in his mind is that the fee was roughly the price of a couple gallons of milk or a case of beer. In […]
Posted inNews
Texas Republican Tried (and Failed) to Get College Polling Sites Removed
You can’t win ‘em all. The GOP’s latest target in its never-ending quest to make it harder for (certain) people to vote — polling sites at the University of Texas at Arlington and other campuses — slipped through its grasp this week. Tarrant County Judge Tim O’Hare, a Republican, tried to get early voting sites removed […]
Posted inOpinion
The Far Right Is Preparing to Disrupt Our Election
It’s old hat to say everything is bigger in Texas. True connoisseurs know that things in the Lone Star State are also often wilder and weirder than what you see on the evening news. Every two weeks, Steven Monacelli will explore the dystopic, desperate, and despicable realities of contemporary Texas and channel the sense of […]