An Attempt to Increase Turnout Could Cut It Instead
In an effort to make it easier for military and overseas voters to take part in elections, lawmakers may have killed turnout in primary election runoffs in Texas and increased the electoral power of organized groups like the Tea Party.
Next year’s primary elections will be held nine weeks after the first of the year, which is to say that campaigning will start in earnest immediately after the holidays and Texas voters will head to the ballot box two months later.
Nothing new there — it has been that way for years. The change comes in the runoffs. Federal lawmakers ...
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Kelly Kaufhold
“In their zeal to protect a fraction of a percent of the people who will vote, we disenfranchised 20 to 40 percent of the people who usually vote in a runoff,” said Bryan Eppstein, a Republican political consultant in Fort Worth.
A question for Mr. Eppstein: How does a longer runoff season "disenfranchise" voters? It's their own fault (or an artifact of our inattentive society) that they choose to tune out on their civic duty. Also, a reminder, the Kathy Tovo/Randi Shade runoff attracted 9,700 more voters than the general election - and that runoff was a full month after the general election: http://www.statesman.com/news/elections/tovo-beats-shade-in-austin-council-runoff-1548470.html.
Finally, why single out the Tea Party with no mention of, say, the SEIU or Texas State Teachers Association? Witness Wisconsin this summer. Enjoyed the article, though...keep 'em coming.