Posted on 09/04/2006 6:07:44 AM PDT by Theodore R.
The crowd was small, but Bell is confident with the five-way split.
Running a write-in candidate with a name hard to spell and hard to remember rather than doing something rational such as, say, supporting the Libertarian candidate
Sept. 4, 2006, 12:06PM
HISPANICS IN TEXAS
This election year, Latinos less visible
By R.G. RATCLIFFE
AUSTIN - Hispanic voters were golden in the 2002 governor's race, but even a record Latino turnout couldn't bring victory to Laredo businessman Tony Sanchez against Republican incumbent Rick Perry.
This time around, Texas' 2.7 million registered Latino voters are almost invisible.
Candidates are not regularly courting their vote. And three of the gubernatorial candidates have engaged in border-security rhetoric that has the potential to alienate Hispanics.
Perry has called for protecting the border with video cameras and additional police. Independent Kinky Friedman has said he would use "the National Guard, the Texas Rangers, the entire Polish army, whatever it takes" to seal the border. Independent and state Comptroller Carole Keeton Strayhorn says she will repeal a law that gives undocumented immigrants in-state tuition for college.
Democrat Chris Bell avoids discussing immigration. Libertarian James Werner proclaims himself the only "pro-immigration" candidate, welcoming the flow of people into the country to work so long as they are not criminals.
Third of population
Hispanics have been the fastest-growing demographic group in Texas during the past decade and now make up more than a third of the state's population. But the harsh political reality is that they account for just a fifth of the state's registered voters.
Statewide, Latino voter turnout lags between 10 and 20 percentage points behind that of Anglos, depending on the election. And politically, more often than not, Hispanics have aligned themselves with Democrats, who have not won a statewide race since 1994 — largely because of Anglo voters abandoning the party.
"If you are only taking 31 percent of the white vote, you aren't going to win in this state," said Andy Hernandez, director of the 21st Century Leadership Center at St. Mary's University in San Antonio. "It could be that every Latino came out to vote, and you'd still lose."
Latino voting strength in Texas will continue to grow as the population comes of voting age and immigrants become citizens. More than a third of the Hispanics in Texas are not old enough to vote, and about a quarter of the adults are non-citizens and cannot vote.
"I get a little tired of people saying they (Hispanics) are not living up to their potential," said Democratic political consultant James Aldrete. "When you compare the education levels and the income levels, you're getting a not-disproportional turnout."
Aldrete said no matter what the ethnic group, voter turnout increases with income and education.
Eligibility gap
In the 2002 governor's race with Sanchez on the ballot, turnout in Anglo congressional districts outpaced Hispanic districts by 47 percent to 36 percent. The total vote in all the counties south of San Antonio did not equal the number of votes cast in the three top suburban, mostly Anglo Republican counties: Collin, Denton and Montgomery.
A National Association of Latino Elected and Appointed Officials (NALEO) study of Harris County voting in 2004 found Hispanics made up a third of the county's population but are just 17 percent of registered voters. And 71 percent of the county's Hispanics are "low propensity" voters, meaning they voted just once in the past four elections, or not at all.
Government figures show that out of the estimated 1.4 million Hispanics living in Harris County, only 33 percent are citizens who are old enough to vote. Harris County Hispanic growth in the past decade has been driven by immigration.
By contrast, the more native-born Hispanic population of Bexar County translates into a larger voter base. Fifty-seven percent of the Hispanic population are citizens old enough to vote. The result is that Bexar County has more Spanish-surname registered voters than the much larger Harris County.
Shift in power base
One clear trend is that the Latino power base eventually will shift from San Antonio and the border to Houston and Dallas. There already are more Hispanics living in Harris and Dallas counties than live in San Antonio and all of South Texas combined.
San Antonio continues to dominate Hispanic politics in Texas because of the high rates of citizenship and participation. But that edge likely will disappear as the populations of Houston and Dallas mature, register to vote and begin participating.
"When it's time for Democrats to start winning again, a Latino from the Houston area will probably be the one who emerges as the leader," said Democratic political consultant Marc Campos of Houston.
Isn't GIBBS only the second part of a hyphenated last name? Will the court which engineered every technicality possible to keep a Republican off the ballot permit a vote to count which only shows the second part of a hyphenated last name?
Write-in Votes
A write-in vote is counted if the election judge can determine the intent of the voter. If the voter misspells the write-in candidate’s name but the judge can determine the intent, the vote is counted. If the voter only writes in part of the name as it appears on the list but the judge can determine the intent of the voter, the vote is counted. Failure to write in the name as it exactly appears on the list does not invalidate the vote as long as the judge can determine the intent of the voter. If the voter writes in the name of a declared write-in candidate but fails to mark the box, oval or arrow, the vote should be counted. Id. § 65.009 If the voter uses a sticker with the write-in candidate’s name preprinted on the sticker, the vote cannot be counted. Only declared write-in candidates whose names appear on the list of declared write-in candidates are entitled to have their votes counted. Id. § 146.022
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