Voter Suppression Has Reached Waco
And Ways To Get More Involved In McLennan County Politics
Happy Monday, and welcome to the eleventh edition of Waco Can’t Wait, a progressive newsletter focusing on McLennan County, Texas, and Federal politics. With the McLennan County Democratic Party Convention behind us, it is time to move full steam ahead towards November.
I would also like to take a moment to recognize our fearless leader, Mary Duty. After years of dutiful service to the residents of McLennan County, Mary will be handing over the reigns to Democratic activist Mark Hays in July of this year.
Mary has poured her heart into this role and done everything she can to grow the Democratic Party. Mary took a chance on me as a young activist after I graduated from Baylor, and I wouldn't be where I am today if she hadn’t provided me with so many opportunities. Mary has touched so many people’s lives, and she promises to continue fighting even after she is no longer our county chair.
I wanted to take some time in this week’s newsletter to describe ways that every one of you can get a little more involved in the local political process. The county party and our candidates could all use your financial support, time, and talents to propel us to victory this November. Furthermore, our elections office could always use more judges, clerks, and poll watchers to ensure that the democratic process is fair and transparent.
But before we get into all the ways you can elevate your activism, let’s take a look at the news!
Week in review (a collection of news from Waco, Texas, and beyond)
Waco:
According to a survey of 187 of Texas’ 254 counties, 22,898 mail ballots (13%) were rejected because of the new state voter suppression law. According to the Texas Tribune, “the normal rate of rejection is 2%. In the 2020 presidential election, the rejection rate was under 1%.”
In McLennan County, there were 157 ballots (7%) rejected by the elections office, 100 of those ballots being Republican and 57 being Democratic. Some observations:
Not only did Republicans have a greater number of ballots rejected than Democrats did, they also had a greater % of their ballots rejected than we did. Republicans lost 8.13% of their ballots cast, while Democrats lost 6.31% of their ballots cast.
An analysis from Harris County, which had a greater number of contested democratic primaries, showed that “areas with large Black populations were 44 percent more likely to have ballots rejected than heavily white areas.” That said, while the countywide rejection rate was 19%, Republicans had a higher rejection rate (20%) than Democrats did (17%).
This merits some further study, but when 1 in 8 ballots across the board get thrown into the trash, that is voter suppression. Plain and simple.
Texas:
After a tremendous amount of public backlash, Greg Abbott has added 24 teachers to the task force studying Texas’ shortage of teachers. Originally there were only two teachers total on the task force. While this is a positive development, and shows how much of a political weakness education can be for Republicans, the Democratic Party already has plenty of solutions to keep our teachers teaching:
Judge Nigel Ross of Edinburgh, Scotland refused to extradite Daniel Magee to Texas (after he allegedly shot a security guard in Austin, Texas), “deciding that [the] poor conditions in Texas prisons might constitute an international human rights violation.” Our state government presides over an exceptionally cruel prison system, where men have died of heat strokes because of a lack of air conditioning.
“After hearing expert testimony about Texas prison conditions, in June 2021 an Edinburgh judge, Nigel Ross, raised concerns about persistent understaffing, forced unpaid labor, over-reliance on solitary confinement, inadequate food, sweltering temperatures and a lack of independent oversight.”
On Thursday this last week, 71% of Texas’ energy generation came from renewable energy sources. This is the second highest day of renewable energy production for Texas in history, the highest being on 12/24/2021 at 72% of production.
This is a highly encouraging development in a state dominated by fossil fuel production. Wind has grown from 11.7% of production in 2015 to 24.3% in 2021. Our solar production capacity has also substantially increased in just the past three years, growing from 1.2% to 4.0% of energy production.
United States:
According to a draft proposal leaked to the Des Moines Register, the Democratic National Committee is considering alterations to the presidential nominating process that would bring an end to Iowa’s tradition of being first-in-the-nation.
I think this is long overdue. Disregarding the Iowa Democratic Party bungling their 2020 caucuses, this state is simply not representative of the Democratic Party or the future of our country. Iowa is 90% white and has been slowly drifting to the right over the last two presidential races.
Allow me to share this persuasive piece written by Dan Solomon, who argues that Texas should be the first Democratic primary state. Here are some of the reasons he offers:
Roughly 9% of the U.S. population lives in Texas.
Texas has big cities, growing suburbs, and plenty of small towns that would expose candidates to a broad spectrum of voters and issues.
Our state is younger, more diverse, and growing faster than most other states in the nation.
Finally, if Texas was the first primary state in the next contested presidential primary, the increased level of attention on the Lone Star State could lead to greater investment from the national party, a more enthusiastic Democratic base, and better results in the November election to follow.
The Prison Policy Institute released a compressive report on Mass Incarceration, providing a comprehensive breakdown of how many people are locked up, what kind of facilities they are in, and what are the circumstances of their confinement.
One of the findings I found most striking was that 445,000 people are sitting in local jails awaiting trial, having not been convicted of a crime. While some of these people are being held pretrial to ensure attendance at trial and to protect public safety, many more linger behind bars because of their inability to cover their cash bond.
Political Organizing/Communication:
Civis Analytics provided an analysis of the 2021 statewide elections in Virginia and New Jersey, finding that a combination of Republican surges in turnout and a high-level of vote switching contributed towards the Republican win in Virginia and the narrow Democratic victory in New Jersey. Democrats also failed to turn out many of the Biden 2020 voters, especially Gen Z and Millennial Democrats. The takeaways from this piece could be incredibly important for Democrats as we face a potentially difficult midterm election cycle.
A poll conducted by YouGov shows that Americans are terrible at estimating the size of certain subgroups. Taylor Orth pointed out that the “misperceptions of the size of minority groups have been identified in prior surveys, which observers have often attributed to social causes: fear of out-groups, lack of personal exposure, or portrayals in the media.” Understanding these misperceptions can be an opportunity to educate and counteract messaging from Republicans that might seek to exploit these misunderstandings.
What are some easy ways to get involved as we approach November?
This last Saturday, the McLennan County Democratic Party hosted its County Convention. During the convention, we heard from our local Democratic candidates, nominated delegates to represent our county in Dallas at the state convention, and discussed our organizing events for the coming cycle.
In light of this meeting, I wanted to let all of you know of some basic ways that we can begin to support our county party, our local candidates and our electoral process. Here are some different ways you can up your activism as we approach the midterms:
Support Our McLennan County Democratic Party
The McLennan County Democratic Party has to be the nucleus of all organizing in the county. County parties coordinate organizing efforts between candidates’ campaigns, register/communicate with strong Democratic voters, and provide election judges and poll watchers to keep our elections safe. Here are some things the county party needs right now:
Recurring Campaign Contributions: I have created a donation link that goes directly to the McLennan County Democratic Party. Your contribution (whether it be one-time or recurring) will go towards paid canvassers, yard signs, advertising, and other programming that will support all of our candidates up and down the ballot. If we want to flip McLennan County blue and help our candidates in the toughest races, then we need to provide our county party with a lot of financial support. CLICK HERE to donate. I am shooting to get 50 new contributors for the party!
Volunteer: The only thing more valuable than your money is your time (both of which would be greatly appreciated). The county party is accepting all kinds of help, no matter what your background is. While it is always important to have people willing to knock doors, make calls and send text messages, we could also use folks who are willing to watch the voting polls, work as election judges, volunteer a couple of hours at the office, or even help with social media. If you would like to volunteer, call the office at 254-301-7648 between the hours of 10:00 am and 2:00 pm Monday through Friday, or send a message on Facebook.
Get To Know Our Candidates
Though the list of Democratic candidates is a little thin compared to the Republicans, that makes it all the more important to get invested with our candidates for this November. In addition to information I have provided about candidates in the past (here and here), there are some candidate forums coming up where you can learn more about the primary runoff candidates:
Lt. Governor Democratic Candidates Virtual Town Hall
Tuesday, April 5 @ 6:30 pm (on Zoom)
Cedric Davis Candidate for Texas House District 13 Virtual Town Hall
Wednesday, April 6 @ 6:30 pm (on Zoom)
Texas Land Commissioner Democratic Candidates Virtual Town Hall
Tuesday, April 19th @ 6:30 pm (on Zoom)
Attorney General Democratic Candidates Virtual Town Hall
Tuesday, April 26th @ 6:30 pm (on Zoom)
Help Run The Polls On Election Day
In light of Republican attempts to steal the election in 2020, and the subsequent voter suppression laws passed, it has never been more important to staff our polling places with people who are committed to the democratic process. In light of this necessity for good people working the polls, it is important to work these positions if you are able to!
In any given polling place in Texas, you will have an election judge, an alternate judge, a bilingual clerk, and some extra clerks if it is a particularly large location. There will also be volunteer, partisan poll watchers observing the process. The two judges will be balanced by party (one Democrat and one Republican) to ensure fairness inside of the polling place. In recent elections, it has become increasingly difficult for our county party to find Democrats who are willing to serve as a judge. Many of our past judges, clerks and poll watchers skew older, and have either retired or grown more risk averse in light of the coronavirus.
Many of these positions are paid, a training is provided, and you will have the support of the county Democratic party as well as an army of longtime poll workers that can show you the ropes. Here are some different people to reach out to if you are interested.
The McLennan County Elections Office can provide you with more information concerning the available roles, the time commitment, and the trainings necessary. Also, while you are on the phone with them, consider becoming a volunteer deputy registrar so that you can register people to vote!
Phone: 254-757-5042
Email: terry.sefcik@co.mclennan.tx.us
The McLennan County Democratic Party can let you know where we need more Democratic presiding or alternate judges, and also get you signed up to be a clerk or poll watcher as well.
Phone: 254-301-7648
If you know any high school or college age students that are interested in clerking, reach out to Waco ISD Trustee Jeremy Davis. Jeremy was able to recruit over a dozen high school students to work at the polls this last cycle, and he is looking to encourage more young people to get involved in the political process.
Email: Jdavisfordistrict1@gmail.com
One of the main reasons I created Waco Can’t Wait was to give people an opportunity to step into the political process for the first time. I want to make politics accessible for anyone that would like to get involved. I firmly believe that participating in democracy should not be only for the wealthy and the well-connected, but for anyone who cares to improve their community.
If you have any questions at all about how to get more involved, here is my phone number (469-422-4785) and my email (PeterMCDP@gmail.com). I will happily text, talk or email with you to answer your questions, find the right fit for you, or even just chat. I hope each of you will find a way to get more involved this cycle, no matter how big or small, and I wish you all a great week.