By BECK WOLFGANG Multi-Media Reporter
You have probably seen TV, social media, and website pop up ads that talk about the stakes of this upcoming senate election, featuring James Talerico as the Democratic nominee and Ken Paxton as the Republican Nominee. These ads have become very numerous because their sponsors believe that they can buy the outcome of the election using more ads and flashy graphics. While data shows that advertising to more people brings more attention to a specific candidate, it’s often that voter turnout has little to do with the campaign itself and more of the voters feeling unmotivated to go to the polls.
Texans are the 5th least likely to vote in government elections. These statistics are primarily caused by people choosing to not participate because they believe their vote doesn’t count. Opinions like that come from our history of gerrymandering, polarizing media coverage, and voter profiling and suppression. You’ve probably heard of the 2016 and 2020 presidential election voter fraud allegations. Whether true or not, the idea of wealthy groups of people funding election campaigns to swing them in their favor is seemingly becoming more mainstream. In 2021, Fox news was sued for 787$ Million for spreading misinformation about voter fraud allegations. While they mostly lied about their own superstitions, their sentiments were found by many Republicans to hold some merit after organizations like Team Jorge were found fixing elections overseas.
It’s very frustrating to see voter repression in action, especially in a state where gerrymandering actively minimizes the impact a specific area of people might have and discourages people in a lower income bracket from going out to the polls. People of low income or diverse neighborhoods are given fewer voting booths and additional background checks that eliminate people who they believe don’t qualify for voting, which a majority of the time are based on discriminatory racial pretenses Most of these laws that are put into place are passed through the senate, which is why electing government officials who let people maintain their democratic rights is important above all else, even policy.
If you believe your vote doesn’t matter and you choose not to vote in local and national government elections, then you’ve given everyone else a more powerful vote. Your vote does matter, people who don’t vote make up almost 30% of the overall eligible voters. You and dozens of others’ votes may even change the outcome of the election this November.
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