The COVID era has taught us how much our votes matter. Don’t sit this election out
It should be anomalous during an election cycle (even those that don’t include a bid for the White House on the ticket), that advocacy groups, political leaders and members of the media have to effectively beg people to get out and exercise their right to vote.
It isn’t. So add me to the list of voices pleading: Please, make certain you vote this primary season.
Ballot access is a perennial hot-button issue, so the casual observer might be led to believe that enormous numbers of people are, despite their tireless efforts, actively being kept from the polls.
We can debate the need to reduce perceived barriers to voting and ensure election integrity. But the reality is that most people who are eligible to vote can and simply don’t.
This is especially the case in state and local elections and particularly true in North Texas.
It’s not a secret that voter turnout in non-presidential elections in Fort Worth has been embarrassingly low for decades.
A 2016 study by Portland State University, aptly titled “Who Votes for Mayor,” found that the overwhelming majority of voters in Tarrant County regularly decline the privilege.
When it comes to local voter turnout, the city was ranked 29th of the nation’s 30th largest cities, with only Dallas bringing up the rear. At the time of the study, just 6 percent of voters had participated in the most recent local election.
In last spring’s city elections (which included new mayors in Fort Worth and Arlington), just over 14 percent of Tarrant County voters cast a ballot. That modest increase may have driven by the number of school board races, largely due to public frustration with local management of the pandemic.
Fortunately, when state and national posts are on the ballot, Tarrant County’s turnout increases, especially in presidential election years and in general elections, when it almost doubles from midterm cycles.
More than two-thirds of voters participated in 2020’s presidential election cycle.
But in the spring primaries, turnout tends to look a lot more like it does in local election cycles.
In the 2018 primaries (the last comparable year), county data shows that just under 17 percent of Tarrant County voters selected a candidate to represent their party in November, with Republicans turning out in slightly higher numbers than Democrats.
We have the opportunity to grow that number this primary cycle, and we have good reason to get out and vote, perhaps more than ever before.
If the COVID-19 era has taught us anything, it’s that state and local leadership matters a lot more to the rhythm of our daily lives than those we send to Washington.
Whether and when you were required to wear a mask, get your shots, quarantine, show your vaccine passport, keep your small business closed, stay home with your virtually-schooled kid — all of those decisions were made locally. That’s why Fort Worth has operated differently than Austin and certainly Washington.
For better or worse, your vote made a difference.
And while some people forgo the primaries altogether, helping select the leaders who will face off in the general later this year is extremely important. The number of offices in the running and the diversity of candidates and the views they represent, even within their own political parties, on the ballot.
I looked up my ballot last night; it’s a full three pages. Given its length, it’s easy to understand why voters might start phoning it in after the first few races.
But even the downballot races — commissioners and constables and family court judges — all matter and they all deserve your thoughtful consideration.
With so many crowded fields, there will most certainly be runoffs later this year. I’ll remind you.
For now, do your research, find your candidates and cast your ballot — if for no other reason than we have to stay ahead of Dallas.
