Something Is Working

Via @TimAlberta https://t.co/g0bsQT1FVy

— Maggie Haberman (@maggieNYT) October 30, 2020

I haven't finished reading the article yet, but in all the fear-mongering on Twitter and elsewhere about voter suppression (which is nonetheless real, but call it what it is on the internet), people are turning out in droves to vote.  The local NPR call-in show yesterday discussed voting how-to's in Harris County, and they were swamped with people determined to make sure their ballot was counted, if they had to drive it downtown and place it in the hands of an employee of the County Clerk's office themselves. I've literally never heard so many people so publicly determined to vote.  Last night bands were playing at some all-night locations for people to drive up and vote, or drive up and drop off a ballot, or come in and vote or drop off a ballot here in Houston.

Around the country people are setting records for voter turnout.  Told their vote will be tossed aside or "lost" or rejected, voters seem determined to make sure that isn't so.  They aren't afraid, they aren't cowed, they aren't despairing.  They are voting.  It's almost as if they understand the worst thing that can happen is a close election, or one where ever vote that could have counted was never even cast.  Some people in the public eye say they have PTSD from 2016.  I think the whole country does.

Early Voting Day 7. It’s a rainy, cold and windy gross morning. 41 degrees: https://t.co/o54ngmHRHh

— Gloria Pazmino (@GloriaPazmino) October 30, 2020

More Texans have voted now than in 2016, but the percentage of voters in 2016 is still higher because the population has grown in four years, and nearly 2 million more voters were registered here in the last two years (see O'Rourke, Beto, elsewhere on this blog).  We will still probably match, if not exceed, the 2016 percentage, but it's raw totals that count, not percentage of available votes.