I Reckon: “You got what you voted for” misses the mark


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Last month, the Texas Secretary of State office reported a shortage of voter registration applications just as the Lone Star state was about to enter its first weeks of the 2022 election cycle. This means that civic action groups that run things such as voter registration drives will now be limited to requesting just 2,000 registration forms. The reason for such a sudden shortage of incredibly important forms? The Texas Secretary of State is blaming it on supply chain issues. 

This comes on the heels of recent voter laws that rolled back attempts by numerous Texas counties to make the last election cycle less risky during the height of the coronavirus. With a close end to the pandemic now obscured by the lifting of mask mandates and new variants, the disappearance of expanded voting procedures brings into question just how the 2022 election will change as a result.

Let me be frank: The Texas Secretary of State’s excuse is a sorry one, especially coming from a government office. Home offices run out of paper. Small businesses run out of paper. But government offices, especially those responsible for dealing with elections and voters like for the offices of the Secretary of State, aren’t supposed to be running out of essential office products. We expect these excuses out of businesses because at least businesses aren’t responsible for the production and processing of voter registration forms. We shouldn’t expect these excuses out of government offices whose sole responsibility is to serve the people. Businesses can afford to take a step back or quit. The government can’t.

This critique of the Texas Secretary of State’s office shouldn’t be taken by others as a free pass to start telling Southerners, and especially Texans, that they deserve sorry excuses for government officials and all the consequences that come from that. Quite frankly, I’d argue the opposite. 

The whole “you got what you voted for” line of thinking is the first thing that those with no understanding of nuance will hurl when they hear about any oppressive laws or head-scratching moves from elected officials, especially when it happens in the South. The prevailing conception of the South is that of a backward region full of people willing to vote against their own interests. 

Words can’t even begin to describe how dismissive a concept like that is. It ignores the rich history of progressive, working-class folks in the South. It ignores the idea that people of color are still getting the short end of the stick with regards to how they’re treated by both parties. 

The fact of the matter is that the South is not a monolith, and Texas is no exception. The Lone Star state ought to be proud that it possesses such a unique state culture. The state also ought to be proud that it is the Black and Indigenous people and people of color who call it home make the state’s history all the richer. You’re talking about a state where newly-immigrated Vietnamese came in order to fish, clashed with the Ku Klux Klan and won. 

The fact of the matter is that Texans, and to a larger extent, Southerners, didn’t “get what they voted for.” They came out to vote despite gerrymandered maps and threats of intimidation. They came out to vote while combating a huge wave of voter misinformation. Texans remained steadfast in their commitment to show up and show out at the polls. To discount them so easily and say that they got the incompetent government that they voted for places the blame for the ills of government on people who have been working hard to heal it, rather than on the politicians and elected officials on whom the blame should belong. 

So the next time you hear something head-scratching come out of Texas — or anywhere else where your opinion might be already biased by your view of the region as some kind of monolith — take a step back. We expect better of our government, so don’t go to great lengths and blame government malaise on the folks who it directly affects.

Quynh Anh Nguyen is a sophomore writing about the implications of current Southern political events in her column “I Reckon.”