Name: ‘It’s popular now to go vote’: Young Texans vote in record numbers
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‘It’s popular now to go vote’: Young Texans vote in record numbers

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This is a carousel. Use Next and Previous buttons to navigateWith dance recitals and music performances canceled indefinitely amid the coronavirus pandemic, it was unusual for the Texas State University Performing Arts Center to be bustling on Friday.Dozens of mask-wearing students stood in a quick-moving line on the final day of early voting. On the other end of a strip of grass outside the building — just beyond the required 100-foot setback for politicking — campaign volunteers stood in a sea of political signs, making their final pitches to passersby.No one who ventured to join the line could avoid being solicited. “Are you going to vote?” local candidates called to the young voters, pushing fliers into their hands with smiles.The candidates and campaign workers had good reason to be there. Texas voters under 30 have turned out in droves this year, having cast more than 1.4 million ballots so far — more than the vote total for that group in the 2016 presidential race, according to multiple voter-tracking projects.With turnout at an all-time high in Texas and nationally, young voters — a group historically underrepresented at the ballot box — are showing up in record numbers and keeping pace with, if not outrunning, their elders.“I know a lot of my peers who are around my age, they didn’t really believe in voting before,” said 20-year-old Daniela Dominguez. “But now, seeing how the times are and how the environment is, it’s pushing people to come forward and showing that we do need change, we do need progression.”Her friend, 20-year-old Gabrielle Fraga, added: “It’s finally hitting people that their vote counts.”Both Dominguez and Fraga cast ballots for the first time in 2018, excited by former U.S. Rep. Beto O’Rourke’s challenge to U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz.They were not as fired up about former Vice President Joe Biden, as some Democrats feared when Biden won the party’s nomination over progressive Bernie Sanders. But the two young women said the opportunity to vote against President Donald Trump was motivation enough for them to turn out.Vote totals released Saturday by the Texas Secretary of State show that more than 9.71 million people have cast ballots so far in this election, far exceeding 2016’s total turnout of 8.97 million — with Election Day still to come.“I feel like the younger generation is starting to really find our voice,” said 18-year-old Hailey Price, who stood outside the Performing Arts Center on Friday handing out fliers to re-elect San Marcos Mayor Jane Hughson.Price cast her first-ever ballot on the first Saturday of early voting this year, in her hometown of Houston. It was for Biden.The youth turnout reflects a Democrat-driven registration campaign that has added nearly 1.9 million new Texas voters to the rolls over the past four years. In 2016, about 15.1 million people were registered to vote; this year, it’s nearly 17 million.“That is not going to be dominated by older white people,” said Renée Cross, senior director of the Hobby School of Public Affairs at the University of Houston. “Those numbers are going to be dominated by younger folks who tend to be people of color.”Though no young Republicans were on hand Friday afternoon at Texas State, they’re plenty motivated, too.Chase Nicholson, the 21-year-old co-president of the Southern Methodist University chapter of the College Republicans, voted by mail this year in her home state of Florida — for Trump.She had varied reasons for preferring Trump, she said. She wanted to deliver a rebuke to “cancel culture,” the social media-driven practice of denouncing those who do or say things deemed objectionable.She said she has a firm belief in small government and hoped that reviving the economy quickly under Trump would help those who lost their jobs in the coronavirus lockdowns.“I don’t relate to the policy propositions that [Biden] and his party have put forward,” Nicholson said. “They’re more radical than in the past. They’re not Kennedy Democrats — this is a whole new breed.”Joseph Parler, a 23-year old from Belton, cast a ballot in a presidential election for the first time this year after missing the deadline to register four years ago. He voted early for Trump, citing the president’s support for reopening the economy and cracking down on unrest in big cities.“Culture dictates” that many young people vote Democrat, Parler said, adding that children are influenced by left-leaning teachers and take in liberal views from celebrities.“For me and for the betterment of my future, it was in my best interest to vote this year,” Parler said. “I’m for low taxes and security amongst our citizens, so I thought it was necessary to vote.”Experts predict that up to 70 percent of Texas’ registered voters — about 12 million people — will have cast ballots by Election Night. Already, 57.3 percent of registered Texans have voted, just shy of last year’s 59.4 percent overall turnout.After the final day of early voting on Friday, Texans under 30 accounted for 14.5 percent of the total electorate — up from 13.4 percent four years ago, according to a report by Derek Ryan, a Republican voter data expert.That could change on Election Day, when older voters more accustomed to turning up in-person on the first Tuesday of November cast their ballots.Still, the raw number of young Texas voters is higher than ever.“If there’s a truism in political science, it’s that young people don’t vote,” said Victoria DeFrancesco Soto, an assistant dean at the LBJ School of Public Affairs at the University of Texas at Austin. “What it says is, this is a special election.”Cameron Mayfield, a Houston field director for Texas Rising Action, a project of the left-leaning Texas Freedom Network, has been working on an initiative to push young voters to the polls. The group has contacted more than 1.5 million Texans under 30 years old in recent weeks.“Young voters are excited to go vote,” said Mayfield, whose team of six organizers sends about 1,000 text messages per hour. “It’s popular now to go vote.”Democratic candidates also have begun appealing directly to young people. Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders and U.S. Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York have both courted young voters by highlighting plans to forgive student loans and take action on climate change.“If those groups don’t believe that the election outcome matters, there’s no reason for them to put the time and effort into voting and casting a ballot,” said Jan Leighley, a professor in the department of government at American University in Washington, D.C., who studies voter turnout. “I think you’ve heard that a lot, especially from youth: ‘They don’t talk about the issues I care about.’”This year, that’s not such a problem.Meredith Reilly and Zachary Houdek, both 20-year-old students at American who live in Fort Worth and Austin, respectively, drove 1,400 miles from D.C. last week to vote in person after their absentee ballots did not arrive.“I am very big into environmental sustainability — making sure our world is going to be a healthier, safer place,” Houdek said, explaining why he voted for Biden. “The next president will determine how the U.S. deals with climate change possibly for the rest of our lives. … It takes strong leadership to make that change.”The two students hadn’t planned to come home for Thanksgiving but they rented a car and drove nearly nonstop for more than 20 hours to ensure they had a voice in choosing the next president.Reilley said Trump’s handling of the coronavirus pandemic is her top issue: “It’s very likely the most important election of our lifetime.”Washington correspondent Benjamin Wermund contributed to this report.

This is a carousel. Use Next and Previous buttons to navigateWith dance recitals and music performances canceled indefinitely amid the coronavirus pandemic, it was unusual for the Texas State University Performing Arts Center to be bustling on Friday.Dozens of mask-wearing students stood in a quick-moving line on the final day of early voting. On the other end of a strip of grass outside the building — just beyond the required 100-foot setback for politicking — campaign volunteers stood in a sea of political signs, making their final pitches to passersby.No one who ventured to join the line...

‘It’s popular now to go vote’: Young Texans vote in record numbers

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