Let’s Make It Easier, Not Harder, To Vote

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I went to vote last Saturday morning in the city council election. First I stopped up the street at the Farmer’s Market and bought some fresh kale, a loaf of homemade jalapeño bread and a pretty hanging pot of flowers to give my Beautiful Mystery Companion for Mother’s Day. I exchanged small talk with several acquaintances both selling and buying there. Perusing the produce and other items at the Farmer’s Market is a pleasant way to begin a Saturday morning.

Next I headed down the street to vote at city hall. I pulled into a nearly empty parking lot about 8:30 and saw a pair of canopies set up at the politicking boundary line. The three candidates for District 6 in the Longview City Council were standing around talking to each other. All three of them waved to me as I walked by, and one of them said, “Thanks for coming by.” None of them tried to buttonhole me and ask for my vote, not that I would have minded. I figure nearly everybody who shows up to vote in a city council election has already decided, but candidates feel obligated to show up anyway on the off-chance they can sway a few voters.

I went inside, showed my driver’s license and voter’s registration card, signed the book and received the access code for the voting machine. The District 6 race was the only one on the ballot where we live, so voting took about 15 seconds. I wished the three candidates good luck as I left, while they stood around talking.

Two things struck me about this encounter. The three candidates were conversing amiably in the way we do in East Texas, even though they were all competing for the same position. After months of watching presidential candidates — particularly the Republican slate — sink to a coarse level of discourse not seen in America since the 19^th century, it was a refreshing change to see folks running for office and not trying to drag their opponents down in the gutter.

My second observation: Voter turnout in Texas is lousy at best even during the presidential primaries. Just 21.5 percent of eligible voters turned out in March. Two-thirds of them voted in the Republican primary, a third in the Democratic. That means roughly 18 million Texas residents over the age of 18 did not vote in either primary, leaving the decision in the hands of the 4.2 million who did vote early or on primary day. That is the second-lowest turnout of any state that had a primary to that point. Thank goodness for Louisiana, which finished at the bottom.

When it comes to city council and school board races, turnout is markedly worse. If last week’s results reflect the past, less than 10 percent of eligible voters voted in these races. In District 6, which is central Longview, a total of 1,109 folks voted. That does not sound like very many in one of six districts in a city whose population tops 80,000.

It must have been slow going working for an elections clerk on Saturday. Only 302 people went to the polls in District 6 over a 12-hour period. That is about 25 an hour, or one person every two-and-a-half minutes. The June 11 runoff between the top two vote-getters is likely to draw even fewer people. It is highly likely, as happens so often, that the next city council member in District 6 will be elected by less than 5 percent of the eligible voters. That does not sound much like representative democracy, does it?

How do we improve turnout in Texas elections? We might start by making it easier for people to register to vote, and to actually cast a ballot. The trend has been in the opposite direction — stringent voter ID laws to attempt to stop something that is virtually non-existent: voter fraud. With today’s technology, why can’t have same-day voter registration in Texas? Eleven states have same-day registration. In Texas, one must be registered 30 days ahead of an election. That is so old-school.

Surely, at some point, security measures can allow voters to cast early ballots online. We are not at that juncture yet, though it seems passing strange to me that many of us conduct the vast majority of our banking, purchases and other financial transactions online — but we cannot cast a ballot in that manner.

We should work toward the goal of opening doors to potential voters — whatever their politics — not putting up walls. Speaking of walls, don’t even get me started about a certain presidential nominee-apparent.

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