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HOUSTON, Texas (KTRK) — Rie Congelio stood on a sidewalk along the edge of Moody Park in Houston holding a white poster board with the words “Register to Vote” written in red and blue capital letters.
“Are you registered,” she yelled as cars drove by the METRORail stop where she was standing.
She paced back and forth and when a train pulled into the station, Congelio stretched her arms out, positioning the sign for riders to see.
“Hey, are you registered to vote,” she asked again as a passenger exited the train. Without making eye contact, the rider walked past her, groceries in hand.
“It’s a little slow going,” Congelio said. “You also have to have a high tolerance for rejection.”
With just days until the voter registration deadline Monday, there’s still tens of thousands of Texans who are eligible to vote but haven’t registered. Political analysts say lack of registered voters could lead to low voter turnout in areas that have historically had the fewest voters, including in three of Houston’s congressional districts.
During the 2018 election, 10 of the nation’s 435 Congressional Districts saw less than 35% of voting-age citizens cast a ballot, according to an analysis by 13 Investigates at ABC Owned Stations. Four of those districts were in Texas and three were in New York City.
Texas’ 29th Congressional District in Houston is the ninth worst performing district in the nation in real voter turnout.
During the 2018 election, only 33.6% of people 18 years or older who were citizens eligible to vote in Texas’ 29th district actually voted, according to our analysis of U.S. Census data. The voter turnout was only slightly better in the 2016 election, when 39.2% of eligible voters cast a ballot in that district.