Wilfred Owusu-Boateng
Badih Elarba
POL 1133.010 Q: Texas Politics and Society
9 October 2015
Q Paper
The U.S Constitution and federal laws do not have really strict laws placed on state’s power to establish voter qualifications. They just want to make sure that the right to vote belongs to only “qualified" citizens and that the states have the authority to follow through on those qualifications. That being said to be a “qualified” citizen, one must be a U.S Citizen, be at least 18 years or older at the time of registration, have resided in Texas for at least 30 days, not be a convicted felon (unless sentences are complete), and have registered to vote. The primary purpose of this was to make sure that the states do not use certain factors to …show more content…
Most people say that it hurts/affects minorities because it stops them from voting, but I personally believe that these minorities are behaving like victims. The process for getting an ID is no different for a white person than it is for a Hispanic person or black person. One of the arguments against the ID is that it is a new poll tax because getting a state ID costs money. In Texas a state ID is $16.00 and it lasts for six years. $16.00 every six years is not a very substantial amount of money. In fact, if a person could find two pennies a day for six years they could have enough money and then some for an ID (Uke, 2102). Even if that still is too much I believe that we could just have a waiver for the ID cost if one truly needed it. You can also use a birth certificate which is free and never needs to be renewed as a form of …show more content…
This is a 74.15% which is actually pretty good in my opinion. The only problem though is the turnout. Out of the 14,025,411 people who are registered voters only 4,727,208 actually turned out to vote. That is just a 33.7% chance, and that is only for the population for the registered voters. When it comes to the total of people that are of voting age it is 24.99%. In the runoff primaries in May for the Republican and Democratic parties there were less registered votes (13,601,324), but the voting age population stayed the same. The turnout for the Republican Party was greater than the Democratic Party, but there were both pretty low regardless. For the Republican Party only 752,780 people turned out which is only 5.53% of registered voters and 3.98% of the voting age population. When it came to the Democratic Party only 201,283 people turned out which is only 1.48% of registered voters and 1.06% of the voting age population. For some reason the March Gubernatorial Primaries had a higher voter turnout for both parties. The Republican Party had a 9.98% turnout of registered voters and a 7.18% turnout of the voting age population. The Democratic Party on the other hand had a 4.12% turnout of registered voters and a 2.96% turnout of the voting age population which is less than
Badih Elarba
POL 1133.010 Q: Texas Politics and Society
9 October 2015
Q Paper
The U.S Constitution and federal laws do not have really strict laws placed on state’s power to establish voter qualifications. They just want to make sure that the right to vote belongs to only “qualified" citizens and that the states have the authority to follow through on those qualifications. That being said to be a “qualified” citizen, one must be a U.S Citizen, be at least 18 years or older at the time of registration, have resided in Texas for at least 30 days, not be a convicted felon (unless sentences are complete), and have registered to vote. The primary purpose of this was to make sure that the states do not use certain factors to …show more content…
Most people say that it hurts/affects minorities because it stops them from voting, but I personally believe that these minorities are behaving like victims. The process for getting an ID is no different for a white person than it is for a Hispanic person or black person. One of the arguments against the ID is that it is a new poll tax because getting a state ID costs money. In Texas a state ID is $16.00 and it lasts for six years. $16.00 every six years is not a very substantial amount of money. In fact, if a person could find two pennies a day for six years they could have enough money and then some for an ID (Uke, 2102). Even if that still is too much I believe that we could just have a waiver for the ID cost if one truly needed it. You can also use a birth certificate which is free and never needs to be renewed as a form of …show more content…
This is a 74.15% which is actually pretty good in my opinion. The only problem though is the turnout. Out of the 14,025,411 people who are registered voters only 4,727,208 actually turned out to vote. That is just a 33.7% chance, and that is only for the population for the registered voters. When it comes to the total of people that are of voting age it is 24.99%. In the runoff primaries in May for the Republican and Democratic parties there were less registered votes (13,601,324), but the voting age population stayed the same. The turnout for the Republican Party was greater than the Democratic Party, but there were both pretty low regardless. For the Republican Party only 752,780 people turned out which is only 5.53% of registered voters and 3.98% of the voting age population. When it came to the Democratic Party only 201,283 people turned out which is only 1.48% of registered voters and 1.06% of the voting age population. For some reason the March Gubernatorial Primaries had a higher voter turnout for both parties. The Republican Party had a 9.98% turnout of registered voters and a 7.18% turnout of the voting age population. The Democratic Party on the other hand had a 4.12% turnout of registered voters and a 2.96% turnout of the voting age population which is less than