Gaining ground: 4 counties with distinct voting patterns key to bot...

So counties which are democrate are ignored because TEXAS is a republican state. Go figure, who knew!. That explains ELPs' poor situation.

"El Paso and Hidalgo may also have greater numbers of recent immigrants who are not eligible to vote."

That's funny. You mean they have great numbers of illegals who are not allowed to legally vote. In the entire article the word "illegal" is not mentioned once. The above quote is the only reference of the real problem for democrats. Very poorly written piece.

One of the top 10 counties in the state and the lowest in voter participation. No wonder you people don't count politically. Now go register and VOTE!!!!!!

This article is nothing new. Voters with higher income and education turnout to the polls. They pay more taxes and they have a bigger stake in government. Many of these suburban counties are made up of more recent residents who want to take part.

Those of lower income and education feel like they don't matter as much and their votes will be ignored. Collin and Denton Counties have large numbers of non-English speaking residents- legal and illegal. They come for the construction trades.

Finally the GOP has a better get out the vote organization. The Dems were better at this years ago but times have changed.

Come on El Paso, light a fire under your a**

Every county in Texas with the largest cities in TEXAS are now solid BLUE such as El Paso, Dallas, Tarrant, Harris, Bexar, and Travis.

In the DFW metro area Collin and Denton counties are currently solid RED but, Collin has a massive population that is more ethnic (Latino, Asian - Indian, Middle Eastern, etc)and becoming more Purple. In a few more years Collin will become a BLUE county as well.

Like California, Texas will be a solid Blue state in about 10-15 years.

David wrote:

Every county in Texas with the largest cities in TEXAS are now solid BLUE such as El Paso, Dallas, Tarrant, Harris, Bexar, and Travis.
In the DFW metro area Collin and Denton counties are currently solid RED but, Collin has a massive population that is more ethnic (Latino, Asian - Indian, Middle Eastern, etc)and becoming more Purple. In a few more years Collin will become a BLUE county as well.
Like California, Texas will be a solid Blue state in about 10-15 years.

And just look how well it has turned out in California. By the way, has the state stopped paying people with IOU's yet?

MLE wrote:

"El Paso and Hidalgo may also have greater numbers of recent immigrants who are not eligible to vote."
That's funny. You mean they have great numbers of illegals who are not allowed to legally vote. In the entire article the word "illegal" is not mentioned once. The above quote is the only reference of the real problem for democrats. Very poorly written piece.

register and vote, don`t just register and not vote, just remeber most white republicans think all mexican american democrats are illegals, the republicans will not help out mexican americans.

Keep voting blue El Paso. I'm sure Austin hasn't noticed that we vote Democrat in nearly every local and state election.

El Paso will never get our back "scratched" by Austin as long as we vote one party into power constantly.

They don't need to buy our votes...we hand them over like good little lap dogs.

Maybe we need to re-think our cunning plan.

virgen de guadalupe wrote:

<quoted text>
register and vote, don`t just register and not vote, just remeber most white republicans think all mexican american democrats are illegals, the republicans will not help out mexican americans.

Lady you are living in the past. You must be crazy or just plain dumb. Don't generalize
not all white Republicans think Mexican Americans are illegal. Wake up, there is a massive illegal problem in our country. Republicans are not racist. I was a democrat but not anymore. I am tired of all this illegals in my country. I will vote for anyone that doesn't support the illegal amnesty and illegal immigration. We should vote Texas Rep Sylvestre Reyes and Gov Rick Perry out of office these are the people that are supporting all the illegal immigration. Just because we don't want illegals here doesn't mean we are racist. NO MORE ILLEGALS, YA BASTA!!!!!!!

The use of the word "Anglo" in this article is offensive and improperly used.

Joe Pickett. Does he really think we are this stupid....or maybe he's just that stupid?

"State Rep. Joe Pickett, D-El Paso, said low voter turnout does not affect a county's clout in the Legislature, but it could hinder its leverage with politicians who are elected on a statewide ticket. He said that for the most part, the projects and money a community gets from the Legislature is based more on need, along with the relationships and the work of its elected lawmakers."

Pretty good database story that's hurt by two problems. You backed into the bad news about voting in El Paso County showing us and Hidalgo County last. Gotta hit 'em in the eyes to make the point. Second, bad math in the data table. Harris County didn't have a .59% turnout (.0059). That's six out of 1,000 voting. It did have a 59% percent turnout, or 6 in every 10 registered voters. Someone forgot to multiply by 100. Bummer. Easy mistake to make, but easy to spot, too. Correction time.

Steve El Paso-Rockport wrote:

This article is nothing new. Voters with higher income and education turnout to the polls. They pay more taxes and they have a bigger stake in government.

Actually I would argue that the lower income folks have a bigger stake in government. After all the government helps them with housing, food, child care, and medical expenses to name a few. You can say that the higher income folks have more "invested in the government", because the higher income folks pay all the income taxes in light of the fact that 47% of the country pay zero and many of these folks get refunds via refundable tax credits.

So Hispanics complain a lot, but don't vote. What else is new? I co-counseled a voting rights case in El Paso 25 years ago, and it appears nothing has changed since then.