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Political Participation In Texas

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Political participation is defined by the authors of Texas Politics as “all of the opportunities we have as individuals or groups, associations, or political parties to join in shaping common life”. (Pg.52) Chapter 3 of Texas Politics discusses political participation in great detail, addressing virtually all aspects related to the evolution of political participation. Cal Jillson divides the chapter into several sections: The Evolution of Suffrage, Modern Voter Registration and Turnout, Decision to Vote (or Not), Political Campaigns, and finally, Types of Elections (Chapter 3). Suffrage is strictly defined as the legal right to vote (p.54). In 1902, a poll tax of $1.50 was employed by Texas. This poll tax was in place to make the minorities …show more content…

To be a qualified voter in Texas, you must be 18 years old, a citizen, and a resident of the state and county for at least 30 days. Qualified voters must have been registered at least 30 days before the election. Unlike other states, voters in Texas do not register as Democrats, Republicans or independents, but rather they simply register to vote (pg.60). Voter turnout is the amount of voting age people out of the total electorate that go out and vote in the election. The author says that Texans are generally poor voters. In a diagram, the US turnout in 2012 was 58.8 percent, while the Texas turnout was 49.0 percent …show more content…

A primary election is a preliminary election in which voters “select candidates to stand under their party label in a later general election” (pg.75). The two types of primaries are as follows: closed primaries and open primaries. A closed primary is defined as “a primary election that is open only to registered members of the sponsoring political party.” An open primary is defined as “a primary election that is open to the participation of any registered voter, irrespective of party affiliation” (pg. 76). The main difference between the two is that closed only lets people vote for a specific party, while open allows the voters to vote for any party they

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Since 1980, the Republican candidate, running for President, has received a high percentage of the vote in Texas, than he did nationally. However, the thing that has changed between 1996 and now, is that their is a different distribution in the vote for President within Texas. During the time between 1960 and 1992, the Big 6 counties (those counties that consist of the largest cities in Texas) carried the GOP Presidential candidate (Thornburn 168). The only exclusion to this was Johnson in 1964. Now in 1996, they have produced the lowest percentage of the vote for the GOP candidate.

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The Federal judge John Hannah stated “The dominant political party treated all member of the opposing party as if they were “enemies of the state” instead of the respected state leaders, many with a great wealth of government knowledge and ability that has and would inure to be benefit of Texas” (133). The issue is that voting in Texas is so racially divided; discriminating against Democrats is equivalent to discriminating against minorities. Democrats fought to keep their place in legislature by concentrating on individual officeholders during the redistricting process. Republicans, instead of undertaking the chore of encouraging minority voters, would rather overpower their ability to choose their own representation.

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In chapter 5 the article One Face of the Texas Tea Party by Julie McCarty from the “‘Politics in Practice” gives insight on how the people of Texas maintain checks and balances on their government. The Texas Tea Party is a conservative movement that is very popular in Texas, especially in Northeast Tarrant County or NETT. The Republican Party is a conservative party and so is the Texas Tea Party movement. The article confirms that Texas is largely a Republican Party state in terms of political influence. The Texas Tea Party is a very powerful political force in this part of the state.

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We see multiple successes of voting equality attempted through amendments, however, the Supreme Court’s decision on Shelby County v. Holder has pushed back years and years of effort for voting rights. Supreme Court’s 5-4 ruling was in Shelby County’s favor, stating that the Section 4 of the Voting Rights Act was unconstitutional along with Section 5. Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr, who wrote the majority’s opinion, said that the power to regulate election was reserved to the states, not the federal government. As a result to the court’s decision, the federal government can no longer determine which voting law discriminates and can be passed. After the case, many states had freely passed new voting laws; the most common voting law states passed

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Types of elections in Texas The state of Texas has a constitution and a political culture that creates an electoral system which invites all the Texans to choose leaders of their own. There are four different types of elections in Texas namely; • Primary election • Runoff election • General election • Special election Primary election This type of elections is normally held on the second Tuesday in March during years that are evenly numbered. The two major parties, Democratic and Republic choose their own candidates who would represent them in the primary election.

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When the voter ID law was not yet put into play, the number of registered voters in Texas in 2011 was estimated to 12,841,808. After the law had been put into effect in 2013, there were 13,445,285 eligible voters by the November elections. (4) But, in a 2014 congressional election there was a slim decrease. Fifteen out of seventeen states decreased in Voting-Eligible Population (VEP) turnout between the years 2010 and 2014.

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The Texas House of Representatives organization is one in which one hundred and fifty members compose it. Each of these members is to be elected for a two-year term. As well, each member in this position has to be a natural U.S. Citizen of the United States and must be at least 21 years of age or older. Prior to entering an election he/ she must have two complete years of been a resident of the state and one year of been a resident of the district from which they were chosen to form part. The Texas House of Representative is in charge of electing the speaker of the house, which is also known as the presiding officer.

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Texas Political Culture There are multiple classifications for political cultures Moralistic political culture- ones believe that the government should promote the public good and in order to ensure that good the citizens should participate in politics and civic activities Individualistic political culture- ones believe that the government must limit their role when providing to society in order to make the citizens able to pursue their economic interests Traditionalistic political culture- ones believe that the government should controlled by political elites and must be guided by tradition. Changes in Texas

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Before this course I did not know much about Texas’s government and how it operated. I had made some connections from my prior knowledge, from taking another government course. These connections that I made was the types of elections held and polls used in each election. This course has allowed me to better understand how the Texas government operates, which I didn’t know before. I now know that the governor of Texas is Greg Abbott, we have a bicameral legislature, and there are 31 members in the senate and 150 in the house.

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Citizens who already have an identification card may feel that it is their duty to vote, which can raise the voter rate in Texas. I feel that this law is not discriminating; it is just preventing voter fraud from occurring. As a minority, I do not feel that this law is discriminating me from voting instead I feel motivated to vote because as a citizen of the United States I can make a

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The other counties in all of the other states acted similarly. Austin voting blue was absolutely no surprise. I’ve lived in Texas most of my life and the social climate has been the same right-leaning way, except in Austin. The Texas capital seems to be the most liberal city in Texas and I personally know multiple people who have moved to Austin to be part of the democratic machine. But knowing those people and how they were, they are definitely the minority.

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356 Words | 2 Pages

There is not just one reason as to why voter turnout is so low, it is actually the collection of a few reasons. For example, some people stated that they were simply out of town, which in the U.S. you are only allowed to vote in your state of residence. Other elderly voters claimed to be sick or had a disability that prevented them from going to the polls to cast their ballot. Another reason could be that people had registration issues of some sort that didn’t allow them to vote. Then there are voters that are discourage that their vote is useless when it comes to voting on any matter.

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There have been numerous proposals for structural changes that could increase voter turnout. Past research has addressed voter mobilization. However, the core of our motivations rests on how we care about politics and turn-out-to-vote issues. These motivations necessitate further analysis and at minimum, 90% of the registered voters should be able to vote on general and midterm elections, regardless of the election’s popularity and perceived influence. It should be noted that gubernatorial elections and the election of the House of Representatives and the Senate directly affects a citizen’s life more than the presidential election does.

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