Voting and Political Participation in Texas Chapter 7 Voting and Political Participation in Texas

Identify the rights and responsibilities of citizens. Upon completing this chapter, you will be able to… Identify the rights and responsibilities of citizens.

Then Senate candidate Ted Cruz speaking with reporters during his campaign. Cruz assumed office in 2013 and is currently serving a 6-year term as the junior U.S. Senator from Texas.

Political Participation Activities related to governance Levels and types of activities Key term: political participation

Voter Turnout in Texas Proportion of people who cast ballots Registration United States Election Project Voter turnout in Texas Key terms: voter turnout registered voters voter registration same-day voter registration voting-age population voting-eligible population

Voters waiting in line to cast ballots

Explaining Voter Turnout Legal Restrictions Today The Legacy of Restricted Ballot Access in Texas Key terms: poll tax annual registration permanent registration white primary

Smith v Allright (1944) The white primary was designed to keep African Americans from voting in the primary elections, as white Democrats declared the Democratic Party primary to be the internal election of a private organization, an organization that could and did exclude blacks.  In Texas, the law stated, "Be it resolved that all white citizens who are qualified to vote shall be eligible to membership in the Democratic party." After S.S. Allwright, a white election official, denied Lonnie E. Smith, a black man, the right to vote in the 1940 Texas Democratic primary, the NAACP's Thurgood Marshall and William Hastie fought Smith's case all the way to the Supreme Court. Marshall argued that as a citizen of the precinct who had paid his "poll tax," Smith had the right to vote in the Democratic Primary election. The Democratic Party argued that it was an independent organization that could include or exclude as a part of its organization anyone it pleased. In 1944 Court ruled in Marshall's favor: "The right to vote in a primary for the nomination of candidates without discrimination by the State, like the right to vote in a general election, is a right secured by the Constitution." 

National Anti-Suffrage Association headquarters, 1911

Explaining Voter Turnout Social and Economic Factors Age Race Key term: socioeconomic factors

Explaining Voter Turnout Felony Conviction and Voting Party Competition Other Factors Affecting Voter Turnout Rationalist Explanations for Low Voter Turnout

Other Forms of Political Participation Forms of participation Donating money Donating time Civic skills