So today we had a run-off election for a Texas Senate seat. I got all kinds of political ads over the past week from both candidates, so there was no way I was going to forget to vote in this one. I have missed a couple of minor elections before.
What shocks me is that there was a rather low turnout. I was the 21st voter in my precinct, and I’m pretty sure we have at least 10 to 20 times that many eligible voters. I’m not expecting huge lines for an election like this, but I’d like to think we could get at least a 20% turnout.
I don’t think we’ll ever see mandatory voting like some other countries have. Indeed, that would go against a lot of why the US was founded to begin with. But, I also think our Founding Fathers way underestimated the possibility of voter apathy two centuries later.