If Democrats really do want to turn Texas blue, voter turnout would be a good place to start. Texas had the fourth-worst statewide turnout for the 2012 presidential election, besting only Oklahoma, West Virginia, and Hawaii, which is like saying you’ve won the Super Bowl, but only played Pop Warner teams. A study released yesterday by Nonprofit Vote found that only 50.1 percent of registered voters hit the ballot box, down 9.2 percent from 2008. Voter turnout fell in 44 states — the Obama bump in 2008 sent numbers soaring — but Texas was still in rarified air, registering the seventh-highest drop in turnout. Alaska saw the biggest decline (13.4 percent), presumably because residents didn’t have a lipsticked pitbull to vote for. Utah was home to the largest increase in 2012 (2.6 percent), for the opposite reason (a new lipsticked pitbull).
The Latino share of the vote continued its rise, from 7 percent in 2000 to 10 percent in 2012. Jump for the full report:
(h/t Evan Smith)
