Thread: Marching Without A Vote

http://www.corruptionchronicles.com/200 ... _vote.html

September 05, 2006
Marching Without A Vote
The nationwide pro-illegal immigration rallies that threatened lawmakers with the infamous “today we march, tomorrow we vote” chant has failed to materialize with no record of a historic new voter boom that could sway any election.

A major news organization’s review of voter registration figures from major cities that hosted large immigration marches, reveals that not many new voters, Hispanic or otherwise, have even been registered.

From Chicago to Denver, Houston and Atlanta as well as other major urban areas with large rallies, the new voter registration numbers are extremely low. Even in Los Angeles, host of the country’s largest demonstration—half a million people waving Mexican flags and demanding legal rights—the study called the increase in new registrations “more trickle than torrent.’’

Keep in mind that that Los Angeles County has nearly 4 million voters and during the massive rallies, protest organizers promised to register 1 million new voters nationally by 2008. At this rate, that seems unlikely, although Hispanic advocacy groups vow to meet the goal.

The metropolitan areas that most threatened to send politicians a strong message with their new pro-illegal immigration voters have had dismal registration efforts so far. Besides Los Angeles, they include; San Francisco and San Jose in California, Phoenix and Tucson in Arizona, Dallas and Houston in Texas, Denver Colorado, Atlanta Georgia and St. Petersburg Florida.

Captain’s Quarters offers a logical explanation for the discrepancy in the numbers. The rallies inspired hundreds of thousands to take to the streets, but a good percentage of the protesters have no legal right to be in the country. Thus, they cannot vote. The rest are experienced political activists who registered to vote long ago.

So, while the first part of the infamous “today we march, tomorrow we vote” chant has come to fruition, it is unlikely that the second part will ever be.

http://www.captainsquartersblog.com/mt/

Immigration Rallies Do Not Increase Voter Registrations
The AP decided to take a look at the prediction that immigration rallies this spring would inspire hundreds of thousands to register as voters in time for the upcoming midterm elections, if not the earlier primaries. Despite this conventional wisdom getting repeated endlessly in political analyses, they only found this to be true in Los Angeles -- and on a much smaller scale than predicted:

Immigration protests that drew hundreds of thousands of flag-waving demonstrators to the nation's streets in the spring promised a potent political legacy -- a surge of new Hispanic voters.
"Today we march, tomorrow we vote," they proclaimed.

But an Associated Press review of voter registration figures from Chicago, Denver, Houston, Atlanta and other major urban areas that had large rallies found no sign of a new voter boom that could sway elections. There was a rise in Los Angeles, where 500,000 protested in March, but it was more of a trickle than a torrent.

Protest organizers -- principally unions, Hispanic advocacy groups and the Catholic Church -- acknowledge it has been hard to translate street activism into voting clout, though they insist they can reach their goal of 1 million new voters by 2008.

"I was anticipating a huge jump in registration. I didn't see it," said Jess Cervantes, a veteran California political operative whose company analyzes Hispanic voting trends. "When you have an emotional response, it takes time to evolve."


That's exactly incorrect. Movements based on emotion tend to decay rapidly; leaders of such movements have to keep their followers in crisis mode to keep them motivated. The evolution of emotional response is the counterreaction of reason, not momentum of disreason. We need no better model for this than the American resolve on 9/12/01. The unity of rage and demand for vengeance was mind-boggling for a country that nearly tore itself apart over 600 votes in Florida less than a year earlier. As the months and years passed, however, people put the experience into the broader context of their own political beliefs, which has led to the return of partisanship that we have seen since the Afghanistan phase of the war.

The truth lies elsewhere. The rallies inspired hundreds of thousands to take to the streets, but even their organizers admit that a good percentage of the protestors had no legal right to be in the country. Those people cannot legally register to vote, and since their continued presence in the US depends on staying out of sight of the authorities, most would not be tempted to risk deportation by registering their existence with the government. Most of the rest are experienced political activists -- who registered to vote long ago.

The immigration rallies succeeded in pressuring independents and Democrats into favoring more liberal solutions to reform and border security. The numbers of the protestors made sure that their message got heard in Washington DC. The existing votes they represent had enough of an impact to ensure that success. However, their composition almost guaranteed that they would have little impact on voter registrations, and the emotional nature of their argument ensured that it would dissipate shortly after the last flyer hit the wastebasket.

Another reason for low voter registration is that a majority of these protesters are too young to vote. Remember how the schools were empty during the larger marches last Spring. Houston ISD even sent school busses to pick up the kids and bring them back to school. Busses and driver's paid with our tax dollars. The kids aren't interested in the marches unless they can get out of school to do it. That explains the low turn out for Labor Day marches.

Another reason for low voter registration is that a majority of these protesters are too young to vote.

Texan, welcome aboard!

Obviously this is one small fact (forgive the pun there) the pro-illegal alien groups in Washington overlooked.
Maybe they'll drop the voting age to 10 so they can get the hispanic votes.

I'll second the welcome to Texan123. Welcome aboard!

IHMO...
I was thinking also that maybe (?) part of the reason the registrations are less than previously anticipated is because many of those attempting to register would be:

a). illegals - which, by Federal Law cannot vote in US elections at all
and
b). are now aware they would probably be subject to more scrutiny in the registration and election processes themselves (eg. is serving as a deterrent to even considering such thing).

Getting caught as an illegal participating in an election would be another reason to be 'sent packing' (eg. IS a Federal crime) - as we've covered in some threads here on the ALIPAC forum. In the long run though, I still think this is an area that needs to be watched very carefully to ensure the integrity of the electoral process.