Only 10 states had worse voter participation rates.
“Texas is sadly at the bottom of lists for participation,” said Brandon Rottinghaus , political science professor at the University of Houston who has studied voter turnout and worked with groups on ways to boost it. “Texas likes to think that it’s the best at everything, but one thing for sure it’s not good at is getting its residents to come out to vote.”
Some factors are beyond the control of state leaders, including the well-known rule of thumb that older people are more likely to vote. Texas has a relatively young population compared to other states.
But Texas’ low voter participation rate is also influenced by policy choices, including a rejection of strategies that have helped other states attract voters. Many conservatives have resisted such approaches, saying they are susceptible to fraud. Supporters say there’s no evidence they lead to widespread cheating.
Advocates for trying different ways to improve turnout say voting is the cornerstone of representative democracy and having so many sitting out elections hurts a state’s civic health.
“If they’re not voting and expressing their opinions, then democracy is only working for the people that are participating,” Rottinghaus said.
The Dallas Morning News has launched “Back To The Ballot,” an effort to educate voters on the election process and explore the causes of voter apathy and potential solutions.
How Texas is Different
The Texas secretary of state’s office reports turnout percentages of the voting age population and registered voters.University of Florida political science professor Michael McDonald has compiled turnout data for each state based on the percentage of eligible voters who participate, saying it offers a more accurate look at voter participation.
Using that measure, 42 percent of eligible Texans voted in 2022 – 40th in the nation, 4 points below the national average and 20 points behind No. 1 Oregon.
Even so, Texas improved its ranking from 45th in the 2020 presidential election and 41st for the 2018 midterms, according to McDonald’s data.
Looking at regional data, the Dallas and Houston areas ranked among the lowest in voter turnout among the 25 largest U.S. metros for 2016 and 2020, McDonald wrote in a recent report for the Houston Endowment, a philanthropic foundation.
That analysis was based on turnout among voting age citizens rather than eligible voters because of challenges in analyzing data at the level of metro areas.
Among factors that influence turnout, experts said, are state laws affecting the relative ease of casting a ballot.
Some states such as Minnesota have voting laws that make it more convenient to vote, including the ability to register on election day . Texas has a registration deadline of 30 days before an election, the longest permitted under federal law.
Research shows states with same-day registration have turnout rates 5 to 7 percentage points higher than states that don’t, McDonald said.
Texas also has restrictions that make it more difficult for third-party organizations to conduct registration drives.
State law requires those gathering applications to deliver applications they collect within five days or face criminal liability. Those regulations can have a chilling effect when it comes to recruiting volunteers to conduct registration drives.
March to the Polls is a nonpartisan Dallas area voter education and engagement nonprofit group that works to boost electoral participation in underrepresented communities, primarily youth and people of color.
Jessica Lugo , director of the group’s Student Voter Empowerment Clubs , said state laws can make people wary of getting involved in helping voters register.
“Just ensuring that you’ve done everything correctly, by the book – if you don’t, there’s a concern that you get in trouble, like significant trouble, for messing up and everybody makes mistakes,” Lugo said.
Lugo said she received a strongly worded warning email from the local elections office when she returned a registration form one day late because she didn’t realize weekends counted toward the five-day rule.
Texas allows in-person early voting, but mail-in ballots are permitted only for those in specific categories: 65 or older, sick or disabled, out of the county, expecting to give birth close to Election Day or confined in jail but otherwise eligible to vote.
The Texas Democratic Party and several Texas voters filed a lawsuit in 2020 pushing for expanded mail-in balloting given COVID health concerns, but were not successful.
The voters who were plaintiffs in that suit sought to revive the issue and press the argument that an age limit on mail-in ballots is unconstitutional. The Supreme Court in April declined to take up the matter.
Oregon became the first state to conduct elections exclusively by mail more than 20 years ago and has since seen high rates of voter participation – 62 percent of eligible voters in the 2022 general election, best in the nation.
“If you look at the all-mail ballot states, they tend to have higher turnout than those that are non-all-mail ballot states and other states that just make it generally easy for people to request an absentee ballot,” McDonald said. “Any one of these laws isolated by itself doesn’t seem to have a big effect on overall statewide turnout, but they start accumulating.”
Texas Secretary of State Jane Nelson , the chief elections officer for Texas , has focused on providing voters with guidance on how to cast a ballot.
“I am committed to making sure all Texans have the information they need on how to participate in our elections – whether they are students, or seniors, or Texans of any age,” Nelson said in a statement. “Our agency is engaged in a major voter education project to make sure every eligible Texan who wants to vote has all the information they need to register to vote and to cast a ballot.”
High School Students are Key
Texas has a decades-old state law requiring high school principals to distribute voter registration applications and instructions to eligible students twice a year. The law requires principals to serve as a deputy voter registrar.Researchers previously found lowcompliance rates but say the situation has improved in recent years, particularly in urban areas.
Shalon Bond , director of the Dallas ISD Social Studies department, said every high school in the district complies with the law.
She said she could not speak to whether compliance was lacking in the past but said the district has been continually bolstering its effort to get students engaged since she took over the role about 5 years ago.
It’s important for districts to have a champion focused on the effort, she said.
“Students definitely want to have a voice,” Bond said. “They just need to know how.”
Dallas ISD partners with March to the Polls, which delivers in-class presentations about the importance of voting to eligible students and helps them get registered.
Lugo said the work is important because communities with higher voter turnout tend to have better overall outcomes in areas such as public health. She said how much a school district embraces their obligations can make a big difference — whether it really puts a spotlight on voter registration or simply leaves the forms in the library.
The organization works with 10 school districts in the DFW metroplex. “We’re trying to change the culture of voting in the districts that we work with,” Lugo said.
Distributing voter registration materials in school represents a key opportunity for young people, said Taylor Trevino , senior advocacy manager for the voting rights program at The Texas Civil Rights Project .
“If a young voter votes in the first few elections that they’re able to, there’s a much higher chance that they will become life-long voters and civically engaged,” she said. “And the opposite of that is true as well.”
The law does not include an enforcement mechanism or requirement that the state track whether schools are complying.
The Texas Civil Rights Project has pushed for the state to do more to promote compliance. Trevino suggested the state could proactively send the forms to each school twice a year to help prompt them to follow the law. Bills to require that were introduced in the Legislature last year but went nowhere.
Bad Experiences Deter Voters
Rice University political science professor Robert Stein said steps government officials could take, such as extending early-voting periods, would have a limited impact.Texas’ low voter turnout is the product of many factors, including a highly mobile population that has a higher proportion of renters People who rent are more likely to move, which makes registering more difficult, he said.
Making the actual experience of voting convenient, such as keeping lines down and wait times low, also is important, he said.
Officials should carefully consider where they place polling locations and how to physically lay out those facilities to make sure they function well, Stein said, adding that trained poll workers and reliable equipment are also important.
Stein pointed to major fast food chains that can accommodate large numbers of people, even in the middle of a heavy lunch rush.
“The administration of an election can make an enormous difference,” Stein said. “We know that if a voter has a bad voting experience, if they wait in a long line, they won’t vote in the next election.”
Factors Outside of Policymakers Control
Experts agree demographics play a significant role in turnout.“Every survey that’s ever been done, every analysis of voter file data, finds that the older you are the more likely you are to vote,” McDonald said.
Minnesota has an older population – and one of the highest turnout rates in the country.
Texas has one of the nation’s lowest median ages. One reason is its large Hispanic population, which is generally younger and less likely to vote.
Close elections can increase voter turnout, particularly in presidential battleground states. Texas Democrats haven’t won statewide since 1994, and the state hasn’t gone for their presidential candidate since Jimmy Carter beat Gerald Ford in 1976.
Still, Democrats in 2020 produced their best Texas presidential showing since Carter’s win, McDonald said.
“As Texas has become more competitive, it still remains a very low turnout state, so it can’t be it’s just the level of competition,” McDonald said.
©2024 The Dallas Morning News. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.
