Bexar County Latinos May Have Tipped Local Voter Registration to Record Levels
The number of registered voters in Bexar County has never been higher. At 1,036,547, that’s around 118,000 more people than those registered in 2012, the last presidential election year.
The trend isn’t unique to Bexar residents — the Secretary of State office’s reported an uptick in registration across the state, contributing to the record-breaking total of 15 million registered voters in Texas. But those who helped register voters in Bexar County, the state’s most populated county with a Latino majority, say the region’s Latino population may be largely responsible for pushing local — and state—registration numbers to record level.
“We saw a huge surge at the beginning of the year of people wanting to become a citizen just so they could vote,” said Selene Gomez, the San Antonio coordinator for Mi Familia Vota. “They realize it’s important. People want to see somebody elected who respects their families. They see it’s their civic duty.”
This surge in Latino voters shouldn’t be surprising—when a presidential candidate paints your community as being filled with “murderers” and "rapists,” it might be common sense to makes sure he doesn’t win—but many political pundits predicted a mediocre turnout. Bexar County may prove them wrong.
Read more: http://www.sacurrent.com/the-daily/archives/2016/10/14/bexar-latinos-may-have-tipped-local-voter-registration-to-record-levels