La Voz de Seguin June, 2011 internet.pmd - La Voz Newspapers

Page # 12La Voz de Guadalupe County - June, 2011Reflections on theSchool Bond Election in Seguin, Texasby Alfredo Rodriguez Santos c/sHere in the United States ofAmerica we like to celebrate ourholidays. A quick look at the calendarwill show that there areover 10 holidays when peopletake off from work and dependingon which state you live in,there are some other days whenyou don’t have to go to work.Memorial Day, the 4th of Julyand Veteran’s Day are three specialdays because they are relatedto freedom, democracy andsoldiers who have gone to warand may not have come back. Asa country we pride ourselves asthe leader of the free world.We like to think that our way oflife is worth defending and evenexporting to other nations. Thisis part of the reason why we areinvolved in two wars at the currentmoment. One is in Iraq andthe other in Afghanistan. We tellourselves that we are over thereso that “those” people can somedayenjoy the same benefits wehave here in the United States.But here is the irony, in theUnited States of America, whenit comes time to vote and let one’svoice be heard, our turnout recordis dismal. All around the country,people have been losing interestin the very act that we tell othersthat we cherish and are willing todie for in far away lands.¿Qué pasó?On Novmeber 2, 2010, therewere 18,789,238 people in Texaswho were 18 years of age or over.According to the Texas Secretaryof State, Hope Andrade,13,269,233 people were registeredto vote. After the pollsclosed and the votes werecounted, it was revealed that atotal of 4,979,870 people hadcast ballots. Rick Perry received2,737,481 votes. His challenger,Bill White, the Democrat, received2,106,395 votes.Governor Perry won re- electionwith a margin of 631,086votes. Stated differently,8,289,363 registered voters didnot cast a ballot in the November2, 2010 general election inTexas. In Guadalupe County onthis same date, there were74,783 registered voters on therolls, yet only 30,386 or 40.63%bothered to cast a ballot.¿Qué pasó?On May 14th, 2011, the SeguinIndependent School Districtheld an election on a 97.5 millionbond to build and renovate facilitiesat the high school. Some2,864 turned out to vote early. Altogether,out of 22,944 registeredvoters who could have voted inthis election, only 4,036 botheredto turn out.¿Qué pasó?So here is the first question, ifpeople believe in education, andmost people do, why was theturnout so low in the May 14thelection? There are three waysto vote now-a-days: Absentee,Early and in Person. Voting iseasy yet some people couldn’tfind it in them to cast a ballot.With all these options, only 4,036people bothered to cast a ballot.¿Qué pasó?Second question, if you believeyou are a good American, if youbelieve in celebrating MemorialDay, the 4th of July and orVeteran’s Day, how could one“forget” to go and vote?I”ll tell you the answer, and actuallythere are a couple of answers.First, for some people“not voting” is not a matter offogetting, it is a matter of “notcaring.” It is very similar to thosepeople who throw trash out theircar window. The plain truth isthat there are people who justdon’t care about the communitythey live in and not voting is justthe most glaring manifestation ofthat “not caring.”The second reason that somepeople don’t go out and vote isbecause they believe their votedoesn’t count. Where they gotthis idea I do not know. There areso many examples of electionsthat were won by just one vote.One thing people inpolitics know is that everyvote important andevery vote counts.When we examinevoter turnout for theMay 14th Seguinschool bond election, itis clear that a lot ofpeople did not bother toturnout and vote. This istrue of Anglo and MexicanAmerican voters.Because this newspaperhas a stated focuson the Hispanic community,our voter analysishas tried to “godeep” in understandingthe lack of participationof the Hispanic com-munity in this past school boardelection especially in light of thefact that 62% of students enrolledin the district are Hispanic. (SeeTable # 1)Table 1Ethnic/Racial Break Downof Student Enrollement inthe Seguin ISDAfrican American 521 6.9%Hispanic 4,671 62.0%White 2,275 30.2%Native American 18 0.2%Asian/Pacific Islander 44 0.6%SOURCE: Texas Education Agency, AcademicExcellence Indicator System District - 2009-10 DistrictProfileThe Seguin IndependentSchool District is conducting asurvey to try and find out whatpeople’s sentiments are about theschool bond election. We lookTable 2Voter Turnout by Districts in SISDby Spanish Surname and GenderRegisterd Total Spanish Male FemaleVoters Voters Surname1 2,831 349 104 43 642 2,608 342 91 36 543 3,514 516 25 10 154 3,864 943 78 34 445 4,028 1,023 94 40 536 1,884 115 60 26 347 4,215 748 46 19 2622,944 4,036 498 208 290SOURCE: Guadalupe County Elections Office, Seguin, Texasforward to seeing those resutls.In the mean time, using datafrom the Guadalupe CountyElections Office, we were ableto find out howmany Hispanicsvoted. That datais presented inTable # 2 and onthe facing page inthe way of a surnamecount.The first columncontains thesurname followedby a number.This is thenumber of peoplewith that surnamewho are registeredto vote. thesecond number tells how manypeople with that surname actuallyturned out to vote.¿Qué pasó?