• Home
  • Opinion
  • Quizzes
  • Redistricting
  • Sections
  • About Us
  • Voting
  • Independent Voter News
  • Campaign Finance
  • Civic Ed
  • Directory
  • Election Dissection
  • Events
  • Fact Check
  • Glossary
  • News
  • Analysis
  • Subscriptions
  • Log in
Leveraging Our Differences
  • news & opinion
    • Big Picture
      • Civic Ed
      • Ethics
      • Leadership
      • Leveraging big ideas
      • Media
    • Business & Democracy
      • Corporate Responsibility
      • Impact Investment
      • Innovation & Incubation
      • Small Businesses
      • Stakeholder Capitalism
    • Elections
      • Campaign Finance
      • Independent Voter News
      • Redistricting
      • Voting
    • Government
      • Balance of Power
      • Budgeting
      • Congress
      • Judicial
      • Local
      • State
      • White House
    • Justice
      • Accountability
      • Anti-corruption
      • Budget equity
    • Columns
      • Beyond Right and Left
      • Civic Soul
      • Congress at a Crossroads
      • Cross-Partisan Visions
      • Democracy Pie
      • Our Freedom
  • Pop Culture
      • American Heroes
      • Ask Joe
      • Celebrity News
      • Comedy
      • Dance, Theatre & Film
      • Diversity, Inclusion & Belonging
      • Faithful & Mindful Living
      • Music, Poetry & Arts
      • Sports
      • Technology
      • Your Take
      • American Heroes
      • Ask Joe
      • Celebrity News
      • Comedy
      • Dance, Theatre & Film
      • Diversity, Inclusion & Belonging
      • Faithful & Mindful Living
      • Music, Poetry & Arts
      • Sports
      • Technology
      • Your Take
  • events
  • About
      • Mission
      • Advisory Board
      • Staff
      • Contact Us
Sign Up
  1. Home>
  2. Voting>
  3. voting>

Texas civil rights group fights for online voter registration

Geoff West
January 29, 2020
Texas civil rights group fights for online voter registration
nilakkus/Getty Images

A civil rights group on Tuesday renewed a four-year-old courtroom campaign to force the state of Texas to adopt online voter registration.

An attorney with the Texas Civil Rights Project told a federal judge that Texans should be allowed to register to vote when they use online systems to apply for or renew their driver's licenses in accordance with the National Voter Registration Act, a 1993 federal law passed before Microsoft released Internet Explorer.


Thirty-eight states and the District of Columbia have adopted laws that will allow a person to register to vote online before the 2020 presidential election.

Beth Stevens, the attorney for the Texas Civil Rights Project, argued the state had no intention of making it easier for people to vote, asking U.S. District Judge Orlando Garcia to force the state to adopt online voter registration, the Austin American-Statesman reported.

State officials countered that Texas complies with the "motor voter law" by allowing a person to register to vote in person at Department of Public Safety offices but nothing in federal or state law requires online registration.

Currently, a person applying for or updating their license through the DPS website only has the option of clicking a link that opens a printable voter registration form that must be signed by hand and mailed to election officials.

Sign up for The Fulcrum newsletter

The Texas Civil Rights Project first sued the state in 2016 over its lack of an online registration option. Garcia, the judge hearing the current case, ruled in favor of the civil rights group in 2018, but the decision was overturned after an appeals court found the plaintiffs — four Texans — no longer had standing because they had successfully registered to vote while the case was on appeal.

MOVE Texas and the League of Women Voters of Texas have joined the latest lawsuit, claiming the lack of online registration forces the groups to spend more time and money registering people in person.

From Your Site Articles
  • Online voter registration ban in Texas survives in court - The Fulcrum ›
  • Democrats plan to register 1M more Texans despite pandemic - The Fulcrum ›
  • Texas adds 500,000 voters thanks to online registration - The Fulcrum ›
Related Articles Around the Web
  • Texas Tribune: Lawsuit could open door to online voter registration ... ›
  • League of Women Voters of Texas Files Lawsuit Demanding Online ... ›
voting

Want to write
for The Fulcrum?

If you have something to say about ways to protect or repair our American democracy, we want to hear from you.

Submit
Get some Leverage Sign up for The Fulcrum Newsletter
Confirm that you are not a bot.
×
Follow

Support Democracy Journalism; Join The Fulcrum

The Fulcrum daily platform is where insiders and outsiders to politics are informed, meet, talk, and act to repair our democracy and make it live and work in our everyday lives. Now more than ever our democracy needs a trustworthy outlet

Contribute
Contributors

Policymakers must address worsening civil unrest post Roe

Sarah K. Burke

Video: How to salvage U.S. democracy from the "tyranny of the minority"

Our Staff

What "Progress" should look like, and what we get wrong

Damien De Pyle

The long kiss goodnight: Nancy Pelosi and the protracted decay of public office

Kevin Frazier

Demanding corporate responsibility for food system challenges

C.Anne Long

Our two political parties: A resemblance to WrestleMania

Leland R. Beaumont
latest News

Meet the Faces of Democracy: Stephen Richer

Michael Beckel
Ariana Rojas
11h

The alchemy of laughter

Pedro Silva
12h

Work/family balance should be a top tier policy area

Dave Anderson
12h

Learning to make “the right call” in the right moments

Lisa Kay Solomon
19 September

Time warp: Pandemics and politics

Amy Lockard
19 September

Tapping the common sense on immigration

Steven Kull
Evan Charles Lewitus
JP Thomas
18 September
Videos
Video: Expert baffled by Trump contradicting legal team

Video: Expert baffled by Trump contradicting legal team

Our Staff
Video: Do white leaders hinder black aspirations?

Video: Do white leaders hinder black aspirations?

Our Staff
Video: How to prepare for student loan repayments returning

Video: How to prepare for student loan repayments returning

Our Staff
Video: The history of Labor Day

Video: The history of Labor Day

Our Staff
Video: Trump allies begin to flip as prosecutions move forward

Video: Trump allies begin to flip as prosecutions move forward

Our Staff
Video Rewind: Trans-partisan practices and the "superpower of respect"

Video Rewind: Trans-partisan practices and the "superpower of respect"

Our Staff
Podcasts

Podcast: How states hold fair elections

Our Staff
14 September

Podcast: The MAGA Bubble, Bidenonmics and Playing the Victim

Debilyn Molineaux
David Riordan
12 September

Podcast: Defending the founding principles of our government

Our Staff
07 September

Podcast: The continuing effects of summer heat and student loan repayments

Our Staff
05 September
Recommended
Meet the Faces of Democracy: Stephen Richer

Meet the Faces of Democracy: Stephen Richer

State
The alchemy of laughter

The alchemy of laughter

Comedy
Work/family balance should be a top tier policy area

Work/family balance should be a top tier policy area

Contributors
Learning to make “the right call” in the right moments

Learning to make “the right call” in the right moments

Big Picture
Time warp: Pandemics and politics

Time warp: Pandemics and politics

Big Picture
Video: Expert baffled by Trump contradicting legal team

Video: Expert baffled by Trump contradicting legal team

Big Picture