Early voting starts today in Texas, and will continue for two weeks. My family will be voting early this year, and I recommend you also do that if possible. There are 13.4 million voters registered in Texas. In the 2004 campaign, slightly more than 7 million people voted, but nearly everyone projects that many more than that will vote this year.
If just 60% vote, that would mean a little more than 8 million voters -- a million more than voted in the last presidential election. And the total number of voters could be even higher, because the presidential race has generated a lot of excitement this year. Unless there is a very large early voter turnout, there could be some very long lines and a lot of problems at the polls on November 4th.
In addition, Republicans are again making an effort to suppress the number of voters. They can see the writing on the wall and know their only real chance of winning is voter suppression. One of the ways they are doing this is by purging voters from the roll of registered voters. Aside from suppression, mistakes are made. Just because you sent in a registration form doesn't mean you'll be on the approved voter list.
In 2006, my family moved to a new city, and one of the first things we did was to change our voter registration so we could vote in our new home. But when we went to the polls in November of that year, my son found he had been left off the approved voter list. He had registered the same time my daughter and I did, but for some unknown reason he was not listed as a registered voter.
He was forced to use a "provisional ballot" in that election. Don't let this happen to you. Regardless of what election officials tell you, most provisional ballots are NOT COUNTED.
The only way to protect yourself from being accidently left off the rolls or being purged from the rolls unjustly, is to vote early. That way you will still have time to take corrective action if you find you're not listed.
Protect your right to vote. Vote early -- the earlier the better!
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