The Center for American Progress is telling us something we already know: There is a lot of growth potential in Latino voters in Texas, as reported by Julian Aguilar at the Trib.
About 2.15 million voting-age Latinos in Texas who are U.S. citizens are not registered to cast a ballot, according to a report released by the Center for American Progress, a Washington-based policy research and educational institute. The left-leaning organization also posits that about 880,000 legal permanent residents will be eligible to vote in November if they receive their citizenship before the Nov. 6 general election. Eligible Texans have until Oct. 9 to register to vote.
The center says the number of unregistered Latino voters exceeds the number of votes — 950,695 — by which 2008 Republican presidential nominee, U.S. Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., defeated then-Sen. Barack Obama in the Lone Star State.
That sounds about right. Is it any wonder that Republicans are doing everything they can to make it harder to register citizens, along with making it harder for them to vote?
Fellow blogger John Cobarruvias was spot-on this morning when he talked about what could be a second “Alamo” we may all be remembering if Republicans continue on this track.
Later “Remember the Alamo!” became the battle cry for the Texas Revolution. It was a lot easier to say and more catchy than “Remember when we tried to pick a fight with a few thousand well armed Mexicans by stealing their land and got the living hell beaten out of us!”. Now another group of white folks, called republicans and tea party “patriots”, are stealing from Hispanics, Blacks, the elderly, and students by taking their rights to vote away through illegal purging of voter rolls and voter ID bills.
So true.
Filling out the piece of paper isn’t enough, though. Voter education is of utmost importance, as well. Of course, that kind of talk puts quite the fear in incumbents of all political stripes. But, whether things work out or not in the Supreme Court over Voter ID, these voters can still be registered, educated, and let loose at the nearest voting machine. Ultimately, it’s all about priorities.
