On Saturday, El Paso County broke the entire 2014 voter turnout with 3,766 early votes cast, bringing the total past 82,650. With almost a week left of early voting and Election Day still to come, El Paso has shattered previous numbers for early voting and continues to rise in numbers of ballots cast.
What a relief.
Historically, El Paso struggles when it comes to registering voters and having voters actually come out and vote. Before this year, the city had just one day for early voting as a little over 7,000 people turned out for a midterm election. Last week for five straight days, El Paso had over 10,000 voters each day for early voting, according to EP County Elections. Out of the 457,151 registered voters in the county, 83,300 have cast a ballot as of Sunday, which is about 19 percent of registered voters.
And with just a handful of days left in the early voting period, it’s important to revisit the idea to simply go out and vote. We can talk on and on about how it means something for us as Americans to vote. We can speak about the first amendment ad nauseum or reap about the benefits of our freedom, but the bottom line is that if you don’t vote, it actually hurts more than the idea of abstaining from voting.
Take college students for example. Should the age group from 18-25 decide to vote, it could out-populate the voters in the 60 and up category, which always has the biggest turnouts. Is it too radical of an idea to think that college students or millennials over 18 can literally change the scope of our country by voting? Not at all.
Millennials always get jabbed on simply not voting. They wear stereotypes on their backs such as being lazy, giving off an indecisive approach and wanted everything handed to them. For millennials, this is the election to prove everyone wrong.
For El Paso millennials specifically, it’s a chance for their voice to be heard.
It could have been argued that by Thursday or Friday of last week, voters in El Paso would have ceased in numbers and the voter turnout would have hit a lull. Even at UTEP, where polls were set up in the Union East building, it could have been a lower voting turnout.
But when the polls on campus opened its doors Thursday, it came as a huge surprise to some. There were hundreds of voters waiting in line at UTEP. Some said it took about an hour and a half to finally cast a vote. Most didn’t care about the wait, though, they just wanted their voice to be heard.
We have just a handful of days left of the early voting period in Texas. It’s time to get up, spend some time out of your day and vote. No matter the party, no matter the views, voting is one of our most powerful rights given to us as citizens.
For information on voting or polling locations, visit www.epcountyvotes.com.
Adrian Broaddus may be reached at [email protected].
