Electoral Bodies In Texas

Introduction

General Election, being organized and held through the gap of evenly numbered years, being every two years, allows the public to cast their vote towards the selection of various positions, inclusive of state and national executives, legislative bodies, senators, governors of state, senators and other executive officers. Among these elections, the general electoral type refers to the process of electing a president and vice-president, who is responsible for governing for a span of four years. Normally, it has been observed that the turnout for these elections is normally higher in comparison to the off-year elections.

Discussion

Texas shares a heritage with most of the states, a special historical connection with confederate states in terms of the structured disenfranchisement of other races such as Latinos, Blacks, and whites belonging to the poverty class. Many Confederate states, right after the Civil War, introduced institutions that imposed restrictions on voting for the aforementioned ethnicities, along with the inclusion of people who were formerly slaves (this is inclusive of poor whites as well). This rule was later accepted and passed by Congress in the form of the thirteen, fourteen, and Fifteenth Amendments, including it into the United States Constitution to fully disenfranchise blacks and assist the Southern Elites and Allies in proclaiming their political rule in the region.

Elections, while holding a significant value for the state, also depend on the total number of people voting in that specific region. A low-level turnout can leave behind a big impact on the government from the public’s perspective. In Texas, the Latino population is normally taken for granted by candidates who are running for executive positions in that state. Since Texas is strictly towards the concept of districting and Latinos are normally ignored, this adds up to the criterion of neglecting the bigger portion of the population during these considerations (Blessett 2015). This contributes to one of the major factors that add up to the lower turnout for elections in Texas.

Different surveys, dating back to the year 2000, have exhibited the effectiveness of conducting field research for the identification of a likelihood that will attract a bigger number of voters to polling stations on Election Day. Some of the methods employed by the government to mobilize and attract attention from groups of Asians, Latinos, Blacks, and younger people such as students include the mechanism of hiring the aid of non-partisan groups or process of phone bank calls and conducting randomized door-to-door contacts (Eckelman 2016). In addition to this, Texas now has the option of implementing the revised version of its voter identification process for the upcoming elections in November 2018. This law proves a defining victory over the year’s old struggle against the discrimination against black and Latino voters.

Increasing the voting body’s turnout during elections can be divided into short-term and long-term goals, each being implemented and introduced into the system gradually. In the context of short-term goals, one of the methods through which voting turnout can be increased is by educating people about the importance of their vote, the power it holds, and casting a vote to be a mandatory process. From the context of long-term goals, steps need to be taken to ensure that discrimination can be eliminated and to make elections fair for everyone (Hobby et al., 2015).

Conclusions

A close analysis of the lawmakers and electoral bodies in Texas has been noticed to bring about a change in the voting criterion in different districts. However, a considerable change has been noticed in the recent elections. Some of the new reforms include the allowance of driver IDs, citizenship, or state-authorized ID cards. Other methods may include the allowance of a voter on the basis of a photograph or passport. These methods will ensure that every person gets an equal opportunity to realize their voting power.

Works Cited

Blessett, Brandi. “Disenfranchisement: Historical underpinnings and contemporary manifestations.” Public Administration Quarterly (2015): 3-50.

Eckelman, Andrea, Markie McBrayer, and R. Lucas Williams. “Local Officials as Partisan Operatives: An Examination of Early Voting Sites in Texas Counties.” (2016).

Hobby, Bill, et al. “The Texas voter ID law and the 2014 election: A study of Texas’s 23rd Congressional District.” (2015).