Voter Suppression Has Reached Waco

Happy Monday, and welcome to the eleventh edition of Waco Can’t Wait, a progressive newsletter focusing on McLennan County, Texas, and Federal politics. With the McLennan County Democratic Party Convention behind us, it is time to move full steam ahead towards November.

I would also like to take a moment to recognize our fearless leader, Mary Duty. After years of dutiful service to the residents of McLennan County, Mary will be handing over the reigns to Democratic activist Mark Hays in July of this year.

Mary has poured her heart into this role and done everything she can to grow the Democratic Party. Mary took a chance on me as a young activist after I graduated from Baylor, and I wouldn't be where I am today if she hadn’t provided me with so many opportunities. Mary has touched so many people’s lives, and she promises to continue fighting even after she is no longer our county chair.

I wanted to take some time in this week’s newsletter to describe ways that every one of you can get a little more involved in the local political process. The county party and our candidates could all use your financial support, time, and talents to propel us to victory this November. Furthermore, our elections office could always use more judges, clerks, and poll watchers to ensure that the democratic process is fair and transparent.

But before we get into all the ways you can elevate your activism, let’s take a look at the news!

Week in review (a collection of news from Waco, Texas, and beyond)

Waco:

According to a survey of 187 of Texas’ 254 counties, 22,898 mail ballots (13%) were rejected because of the new state voter suppression law. According to the Texas Tribune, “the normal rate of rejection is 2%. In the 2020 presidential election, the rejection rate was under 1%.”

In McLennan County, there were 157 ballots (7%) rejected by the elections office, 100 of those ballots being Republican and 57 being Democratic. Some observations:

• Not only did Republicans have a greater number of ballots rejected than Democrats did, they also had a greater % of their ballots rejected than we did. Republicans lost 8.13% of their ballots cast, while Democrats lost 6.31% of their ballots cast.

• An analysis from Harris County, which had a greater number of contested democratic primaries, showed that “areas with large Black

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