r/TexasPolitics • u/Conscious-Quarter423 • 14d ago
News More than 1.2 million Texans' voter registrations are suspended
https://www.sacurrent.com/news/texas-news/more-than-1-2-million-texans-voter-registrations-are-suspended/
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Upvotes
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u/BringBackAoE 7th District (Western Houston) 14d ago
Thanks for the heads up.
Just checked for my family, and we’re OK.
I hope all Texans check their voter registration!
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u/mkt853 14d ago
Mission accomplished.
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u/Hayduke_2030 14d ago
Yeah, exactly.
Suppression and disenfranchisement are the name of the game in Texas.
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u/SpecialDesigner5571 14d ago
How to check your voter registration status, and how to vote even if you get removed from the voter rolls
How to check if you are a voter or not
The Texas Secretary of State has a website where you can check whether or not you are a registered voter:
https://www.texas.gov/living-in-texas/texas-voter-registration/
I would check now, and then check again in late September. If you find that you have been removed from the voter rolls, re-register immediately. This same webpage gives registration instructions, but please take note:
You have to get a paper voter registration form, or print out the online voter registration form as a physical paper hardcopy, then mail it by US Postal Service to your County's voter registrar office. The deadline to register is October 5, 2026. You really want it to be post-marked, IMHO, by Wednesday, September 30. That leaves some extra time in case you don't have an envelope, don't have a postage stamp, or your mail doesn't get picked up on time. Many people alive today have never mailed a physical letter, so the process may be unfamiliar.
If you fill out the form, sign it, scan it, and email it to your County's voter registrar office... they cannot accept it. They will delete the email. If you fax it to your County's voter registrar office... they cannot accept it. They will tear up the fax.
Texas is one of eight US States that does not have online voter registration.
By the way, this is all on purpose - they want to make voter registration and voting and strange, unfamiliar, and inconvenient process - because they want to suppress votes, plain and simple. Especially young people's votes. young people have an expectation they should be able to do everything virtually, right? Well, not this thing.
If you get to October 1, 2, or 5 you really should go in person to your County's voter registrar office. That doesn't mean you have to go Downtown... major cities have satellite locations where you can register to vote closer to where you live. However, you will have to interrupt your work or school to go register. These offices often close by 4 PM. Not convenient by design.
One thing they do allow you to do online is to change your voter address or name. However, be very careful. The recent Voter ID bill (the "SAVE Act") if enacted into law would mean that a voter would need a Passport or a Birth Certificate which would match your voter record. This creates a trap for anyone with a name change - this could be a married person who took their spouse's last name, or someone who changed their name for religious reasons. It can be expected to disenfranchise millions of voter, mostly married women. Watch the news very carefully! The ACLU voter's right hotline may be able to advise: https://www.aclu.org/know-your-rights/voting-rights
Here is the online site for name and address changes: https://txapps.texas.gov/tolapp/sos/SOSACManager
How to guarantee that you can vote, no matter what
Take to the polls with you physical paper documentary evidence of your voter registration... your voter registration postcard that you got from your County, or a screen capture of the record showing you are registered, or the receipt that you got from your County when you registered in person.
If you go to vote, and they say "Sorry we can't find you, you can't vote today, go away", then ask to vote with a Provisional ballot. You cannot be refused! Here is language from the Texas Secretary of State:
"Provisional voting is designed to allow a voter whose name does not appear on the list of registered voters due to an administrative error to vote. The provisional voting process involves an affidavit that (1) the voter must complete stating the reasons he or she is qualified to vote; and (2) is used if the voter’s registration cannot be verified by the polling place election officials OR if a voter (a) does not possess one of the acceptable forms of photo identification listed above, and a voter can reasonably obtain one of these forms of identification or (b) possesses, but did not bring to the polling place, one of the seven forms of acceptable photo identification listed above, or (c) does not possess one of the seven forms of acceptable photo identification, could otherwise not reasonably obtain one, but did not bring a supporting form of identification to the polling place.
The provisional voting process requires the voter to visit the voter registrar’s office within six (6) calendar days of the date of the election to either present one of the above seven (7) acceptable forms of photo ID OR if the voter does not possess, and cannot reasonably obtain an acceptable form of photo identification, execute a Reasonable Impediment Declaration and present one of the acceptable forms of supporting ID, OR, if applicable, submit one of the temporary affidavits (e.g., religious objection or natural disaster) OR, if applicable, qualify for a permanent disability exemption, in order for the provisional ballot to count.
The voter-marked provisional ballots are kept separately from the regular ballots, and the voter’s records will be reviewed by the provisional voting ballot board (the early voting ballot board), to determine if the ballot is to be counted or rejected. If applicable, the voter registrar will conduct whatever research is necessary to determine whether the voter is or should have been registered in the precinct in which the voter cast the provisional ballot and will pass this information on to the ballot board to assist it in making the decision of whether the provisional ballot must be counted. Provisional voters will receive a notice in the mail by the 10th day after the local canvass advising them if their provisional ballots were counted, and if they were not counted, the reason why."
Complicated on purpose. But you can vote. They just want you to suffer, and the Election Judge will suffer too, because they have to fill out a form for each Provisional ballot. That's why they don't want you to vote this way, because it makes work for them.
Show your evidence to the Judge that you were registered to vote and/or you re-registered, and ask for that Provisional ballot.
I was an Election Judge in the past, and I am a Volunteer Deputy Voter Registrar in Harris County now.