Tim McCormick
You are very important. We as a group are incredibly important!
Yes, we live in a great country and, yes, we have a government that gives us the opportunity to vote to choose our representatives and leaders. But we really make an impact when so many of us get out and vote consistently, and most of us do!
I’m going to get into some weeds here, and I think you may be surprised just how much of an impact we at Robson have. So, let’s look at some numbers. But first, let’s define some terms. Voting Age Population (VAP) is everyone in Texas who is of age to vote. Registered Voters are the people who registered with the State of Texas and are legally allowed to vote. Actual Voters are also referred to as turnout and simply means those who actually voted. Primary Voters are simply those registered voters who vote in a primary election (for our purposes, we’ll focus on the Republican primaries).
Most folks know Presidential elections have the best voter turnout, followed by Gubernatorial elections, and then it goes way down after that. But this is where our power comes from!
During the last Presidential election, Texas had 21.59 million in the Voting Age Population. Of that, 16.95 million registered and only 11.31 million actually voted. So, only 66.73% of registered voters, or 52.39% of VAP, actually voted. But that was a Presidential election with excellent relative turnout.
During the last Gubernatorial election, Texas had 21.86 million VAP, 17.67 million registered voters, and only 8.1 million actually voted. That’s 45.85% of registered voters, or 37.06% of VAP, actually voted.
In the recent Constitutional Amendment election (where you got to vote to reduce your taxes!), Texas had 21.92 million VAP, 17.75 million registered voters, but only 2.56 million bothered to vote. That’s 14.43% of registered voters and 11.69% of the VAP!
We at Robson are way above the average across the state. In the 2020 Presidential election, 89.67% of our registered voters voted. In the 2022 Gubernatorial election, 82.19% of our registered voters voted. In the 2023 Constitutional Amendment election, we dropped to 32.76% of registered voters voting—still more than double the statewide percentage.
Now the fun! In Texas the Republican Primary is where the representatives for all federal and statewide officials are essentially chosen, because Texas has voted Republican for so long. In the last Presidential Republican Primary only 12.44% of registered voters voted, but Robson Ranch Republicans had 43.57% of registered voters vote. The bottom line is, your vote in the primary counts like about eight and a half votes. It’s as if Robson Ranch voted with the power of 35,708 people across the state.
So, please continue to vote. If you haven’t been voting, make sure to get registered by Feb. 5! The Republican Club will be hosting candidate Q&A events so you can meet the candidates. Come join our club at rrrepublicanclub.com. Your vote really counts!