Williamson County population by precinct and voter participation, 2010
(Click the image for a larger version.)
By correlating recently published census data with the results from the Nov. 2010 election, a very interesting picture of Williamson County emerges. Although Republican voters showed up in larger numbers at most precincts, there was a huge pool of registered voters who did not turn out for either party. Furthermore, the areas in the county growing most rapidly are also home to large numbers of people not registered to vote.
In 2012, the hopes of the Democratic Party in Williamson County rest with those who sat out on the 2010 election. Furthermore, a massive voter registration effort, targeting those precincts with large numbers of unregistered voters, is essential to widen the voter pool and make it more representative of the county’s entire diverse population.
MAP LEGEND: The height of each bar is proportionate to the total population. The blue region represents voters supporting Bill White (D), the red region Rick Perry (R), the magenta region are registered voters who did not cast a ballot, and the green region represents people of voting age that are not registered (source: U. S. Census Bureau Public Law file for Texas, Feb. 2011)
That rush of voters we documented as the election day was winding down appeared to have no impact on the early vote deficit of Democratic candidates. The 20-point lead Republicans took from early voting was sustained on election day.
The Republicans were victorious this election. Working families will have to wait another two years for any possibility of a government that cares for them. Expect more corruption, less access to the courts, more imprisonment, less civil liberty, more poverty and homelessness.
The crew of crooked Republican officials for this blog to cover increased by one TLR-funded stooge, a man completely devoid of charisma whose first instinct is to lie and second is to attack, Larry Gonzales. Add to that list Charles “Dr. Creepy” Schwertner, a man whose single motivation for running for office was to fight health care reform at the state level. The future is bright for liberal bloggers who had been fretting over a shrinking beat.
Reporting from Williamson county’s Democratic-leaning precincts indicates a surge in turnout as election day progresses. The uptick indicates that Democratic candidates that had fallen behind during early voting are now closing the gap.
Polls remain open for another two hours, and lines are beginning to form in strongly Democratic areas of Anderson Mill, Hutto and Round Rock. Voters in line at 7:00pm will be allowed to vote, even if there is a line.
Among the possible reasons for the last-minute urgency by Democratic voters are reports that the election may actually be much closer than statewide polls have indicated. If the Democrats get an expected boost from elevated election-day turnout, they may erase an early deficit that emerged in the first week of early voting.
Polls are open from 7 a.m to 7 p.m., anyone in line at 7 p.m. will be allowed to vote. All the information needed for voting can be found at the Williamson County Elections page. Here you can find a list of polling places by precinct[.pdf]. At this link you can find your polling place and see a sample ballot, just type in your address. EOW encourages everyone to vote.
..how much worse will it be when, (if the polls are correct), a GOP-lead state government get’s done with the budget next session?
The shortfall is now projected to be $25 billion. Here’s what Kuff had to say recently, The deficit debacle.
And just remember, all of this has happened with Republicans in complete control of the state. The 2009 budget was balanced entirely because of the stimulus that so many of our Republican leaders like to trash. We’ll get no such help this time around. Every bit of this mess is owned by Rick Perry, David Dewhurst, Joe Straus, and the Republican majorities in both legislative chambers. If you don’t like the situation we’re in, and especially if you don’t like the things they’re talking about doing to deal with it, don’t vote for them. Nothing will change until the leadership of the state changes, and even that is only the first step. The state is simply not ready today to deal with the fact that we have a wholly inadequate tax system that cannot meet the needs of our growing and changing population. I don’t have a whole lot of faith that we’ll get there before it’s too late. [Emphasis added].
They will be cutting form the neediest among us first, those who have not contributed to GOP campaigns and are without high paid lobbyists. And the wealthy in Texas will not even be asked to do their fair share.
Some of Texas’ most vulnerable residents – the very poor, the mentally ill, those suffering from birth defects, and children from troubled families – would lose state support and services under several new budget-cutting proposals.
There are a number things the public “knows” as we head into the election that are just false. If people elect leaders based on false information, the things those leaders do in office will not be what the public expects or needs.
Here are eight of the biggest myths that are out there:
3) President Obama bailed out the banks.
Reality: While many people conflate the “stimulus” with the bank bailouts, the bank bailouts were requested by President Bush and his Treasury Secretary, former Goldman Sachs CEO Henry Paulson. (Paulson also wanted the bailouts to be “non-reviewable by any court or any agency.”) The bailouts passed and beganbefore the 2008 election of President Obama.
5) Businesses will hire if they get tax cuts.
Reality: A business hires the right number of employees to meet demand. Having extra cash does not cause a business to hire, but a business that has a demand for what it does will find the money to hire. Businesses want customers, not tax cuts.
7) Social Security is a Ponzi scheme, is “going broke,” people live longer, fewer workers per retiree, etc.
Reality: Social Security has run a surplus since it began, has a trust fund in the trillions, is completely sound for at least 25 more years and cannot legally borrow so cannot contribute to the deficit (compare that to the military budget!) Life expectancy is only longer because fewer babies die; people who reach 65 live about the same number of years as they used to.
8) Government spending takes money out of the economy.
Reality: Government is We, the People and the money it spends is on We, the People. Many people do not know that it is government that builds the roads, airports, ports, courts, schools and other things that are the soil in which business thrives. Many people think that all government spending is on “welfare” and “foreign aid” when that is only a small part of the government’s budget.
It may be hard but just imagine our country without those. Where the elderly have no Social Security or health care, unless they’re wealthy. Where discrimination is not illegal, and the unemployed are out in the cold. And we’ve completely withdrawn from a worldwide cooperative body.
1) Abolish minimum wage laws which would force American workers to work for less pay
2) Block unemployment benefits forcing millions of Americans to literally starve
3) Slash Social Security benefits-even up to half of what they are now forcing senior citizens to literally starve
4) Gut Medicare funding
5) Gut Medicaid funding
6) Abolish Department of Education
7) Abolish Department of Energy
8) Abolish the Veteran’s Administration
9) Cut much state financial aid needed to avoid massive layoffs of teachers, police, fire, etc.
10) Cut of state aid would have a trickle down effect on local municipalities/suburbs-forcing them to do layoffs of police, fire, as well as close libraries, etc.
11) Will defund various categories of new heath care reform stripping millions of Americans of much needed access to quality health care
12) Will reverse aspects of financial reform to aid corporate/wall street in the continuation of unscrupulous practices against Americans
13) Will extend tax cuts for the richest 2% adding an additional $830 billion more in deficits
14) Will block funding for homeless veterans and homeless women
15) Will disregard the needs of middle America, minorities and the poor
16) Will work toward increased privatization of prisons
17) Will block lending programs/tax breaks for small businesses
18) Will paralyze the Obama administration with endless subpoenas and investigations in hopes of impeaching President Obama
19) Will literally shut down the government by defunding programs
20) Will repeal the 14th amendment which provides citizenship to all people born in the U.S.
21) Will kill cap and trade efforts
22) Will slash food stamp programs
23) Will roll back and repeal equal rights for gays
24) Will privatize Social Security
25) Will cut education spending along with college student aid
If you haven’t already get out and vote today! Here are the locations, polls are open until 7:00 PM.
Main Location:
Williamson County Inner Loop Annex, 301 SE Inner Loop, Georgetown
Branch Locations:
Parks & Recreation Admin. Bldg., 1101 N. College St., Georgetown
Sun City Social Center, 2 Texas Dr., Georgetown
McConico Building, 301 W. Bagdad St., Round Rock
Round Rock Randalls, 2051 Gattis School Rd, Round Rock
Brushy Creek Community Center, 16318 Great Oaks Dr., Round Rock
J.B. & Hallie Jester Annex, 1801 E. Old Settlers Blvd., Round Rock
Anderson Mill Limited District, 11500 El Salido Pkwy, Austin
Cedar Park Public Library, 550 Discovery Blvd., Cedar Park
Cedar Park Randalls, 1400 Cypress Creek Rd., Cedar Park
Pat Bryson Municipal Hall, 201 N. Brushy St., Leander
Taylor City Hall, 400 Porter St., Taylor
Hutto City Hall, 401 W. Front St., Hutto
Mobile Temporary Locations (times vary at these locations):
Friday, Oct. 29, 10am – 6pm.
Clairmont Retirement Community, 12463 Los Indios Tr., Austin
Highland Estates Independent Retirement Living,
1500 N. Lakeline Blvd., Cedar Park
Special Mobile:
5pm – 9pm
Thursday, Oct. 28 & Friday, Oct. 29;
Liberty Hill ISD-Head Start Office (Rear of Elementary School)
1400 Loop 332, Liberty Hill
Texans For Lawsuit Reform, the notorious lobbying group that has pumped tens of millions of dollars into Republican state legislative campaigns since its foundation in 1993; has given Larry Gonzales about $260,000 in his campaign to unseat Rep. Diana Maldonado (D-Round Rock). Still, TLR is not Gonzales’ greatest source of funds. That honor goes to Bob “Swiftboat” Perry, the Houston homebuilder who realy likes his Texas Residential Construction Commission, and is willing to invest $285,000 in Gonzales to purchase one more Republican vote against sunsetting this disgrace out of existence.
The two mega-donors combined have provided the majority of the funds that Gonzales has used in his bid for the House seat. Contrast that with the thousands of individual donors contributing relatively small amounts to Maldonado’s campaign and you have a pretty clear picture of the difference between the two candidates. One represents all of us who work for a living and bring home a paycheck, and the other represents businessmen who hate paying damages when their defective products kill people or make them homeless.
The source reporting for this post comes from the Austin American-Statesman. The policy of this blog is to cite this source reporting at the top of the story to make it more likely that the reader will click on the link and read the full story; however, there is a problem with this story that resulted in the decision to bury the link. The reporters, Jason Embry and Corrie MacLaggan, usually dependable and informative, in this story have committed the mainstream media sin of false equivalency.
In a desire to appear balanced, Embry and MacLaggan have listed two of Maldonado’s largest supporters to support the narrative that “House races (are) awash in cash”. The best they can come up with, however are donations of $50,000 from the House Democratic Campaign Committee and $120,000 from Annie’s List. Together, this makes up $170,000 or less than one-fourth of Maldonado’s total campaign contributions this cycle.
Embry and MacLaggan have written the ultimate “Dog bites Man” headline one week before election day. Voters, especially those who watch television, are painfully aware that campaigns are awash in cash. Politics is a game of big money. However, when that flood of cash is made up of millions of raindrops from you and me, it produces a candidate who is likely to represent the interests of a wider segment of society. Larry Gonzales is taking his campaign cash from very few sources, which shows that he lacks a broad base of support, and provides an insight into whose interests he will be championing in the unfortunate event that he is actually elected.
