I was reading the Ft. Worth Star-Telegram today and apparently SOME readers are incensed that the Star-Telegram did a recent series ADVOCATING EVERYONE VOTING! They wrote letters saying "certain people shouldn't be ALLOWED to vote" and "only the older and better informed should be allowed to vote" and even suggesting TESTS should be given to voters (anyone hearing echoes of pre-Voting Rights Act???). I was appalled, but not surprised, and I bet I can guess the political affiliation of every one of those angry letter writers.
Last night, I was on DU very late and looking at a thread that was started with that map from 2000 showing which counties voted bush and which counties went for Gore in the US. Looking at the Texas map, I found that Robertson County, just north of Texas A&M University, went for Gore in 2000. Heh? Rural Texas county NOT on the Mexican border???? White pop is 66%....not that highly educated. Same thing happened in a few counties in east Texas as well.
So wondering what those counties were doing right, I did a little searching and came up with an interesting recent article from the Bryan College Station Eagle, the closest major (LOL!) paper to Robertson County about how Robertson County has had suspiciously high (!!!) voter turnout since at least 1988. It's also been going Dem a lot since 1988. Same thing happening in those east Texas counties.
Here's the article:
http://www.theeagle.com/campaign2000/localregional/0320... Please notice the Robertson County GOP bitching a lot about high voter turnout and "the Democratic machine" and insinuating fraud.
WHAT is fraudulent about 60% voter turnout, I ask you?
I have two points here: if you are in a red or swing state, please find out if there were any counties that went to Gore that you would think wouldn't. Once you do, see if you can find out what happened. Whatever happened there, needs to happen again.
If it can happen in Robertson County, Texas, it can happen everywhere guys. I KNEW getting out the vote was crucial, but this just slammed it home for me.
THIS is why reps are so afraid of high voter turnout. The PEOPLE vote Democrat.