Voting rights group files suit over Texas registration practices
Thanks to Redstate Bluegirl for the following story from the Houston Chronicle:
http://www.democraticunderground.com/101451248
http://www.chron.com/news/houston-texas/article/Voting-rights-group-files-suit-over-Texas-3313076.php
The nonprofit Voting for America filed a federal lawsuit Monday alleging Texas voter rolls have been actively suppressed by excessive restrictions on volunteers who conduct registration drives, aggressive purges of county voter rolls and poll workers who improperly requested identification from voters.
"A developing body of state practices and provisions targeted at voter registration activities is endangering the rights of many Texas voters," the lawsuit alleges.
The group, affiliated with the Washington D.C.-based Project Vote, runs nonpartisan voter registration drives nationwide and has previously mounted legal challenges to state voter registration procedures in Missouri, Ohio, Indiana and New Mexico, among other states.
The latest lawsuit filed in the Southern District of Texas courts names Texas Secretary of State Hope Andrade and takes aim at the state's new mandatory training for all volunteer registrars - in which almost anyone who handles a voter's application as part of a registration drive has to complete training before he or she can be "deputized" to operate in any Texas county. A spokesman for Andrade refused comment.
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I'm 100% in support of this lawsuit. Texas has some of the worst registration and voting levels in the country. In fact we had the lowest voter turnout of all 50 states in 2010. Dead last. Worse than Mississippi even.
Unfortunately I do think some of the training is necessary. But not just for registrars - for poll workers and election judges. We have way too many under-trained workers at the polls who are disfranchising legitimate voters because of their poor training.
The best way to have near perfect registration is to implement universal registration where the state/government is responsible for automatic registration. All eligible 18 year olds are automatically registered and any change of addresses/name changes etc are also made by the government agencies. This would keep the best most accurate voter rolls and would also increase the number of registered voters since so many of them in Texas are not registered.
Bravo to Project Vote!
I've been through the training in Travis too and it's not that bad. I'm not objecting to the training. I think training is good. It should be consistent and be done by qualified individuals who are not partisan, or at least don't show it. It should stress that everyone who is an eligible voter should be registered and the state of Texas should pay for it.
The reason I favor the suit is that the trial will probably expose how bad Texas is at registering voters. Texas has a horrible compliance record on the national voter registration act - NVRA (aka motor voter). While quite a few people do register when they renew their driver's licences - it is also supposed to be offered at social service agencies. And this is where Texas is a horrible failure. They intentionally do very little to promote voter registration at those offices.
Because gasp those people would tend to vote Democratic of course! Can't have that now can we.
Burnt Orange Report 2/14/12
Texas Sued, 1.8 Million Dead People Registered Nationally - Our Voter Registration System Is A Mess
With elections in Texas still up in the air due to the ongoing redistricting fiasco, two big stories just emerged that highlight the fundamental problems in Texas, and the nation at large, with voter registration.
The non-profit voting rights organization, Voting For America, filed suit yesterday against the State of Texas “on behalf of Voters and the U.S. Constitution” “citing clear evidence that Texas’s election code related to voter registration violates the National Voter Registration Act of 1993 (NVRA).” The suit alleges that Texas election code places onerous restrictions on volunteers conducting voter registration drives, and limits access to voter rolls that could ensure that citizens actually have been added to the rolls.
Michael Slater, executive director of Voting For America, said, ” Texas rules have created a voter registration system characterized by criminal penalties and vague and unduly burdensome requirements that subvert major tenets of the NVRA and violate the Constitution. Current Texas law would make it nearly impossible for voter registration organizations to conduct their work in the state.”
The lawsuit, which names Secretary of State, Hope Andrade, and Galveston County Tax Assessor, Cheryl Johnson, as defendants contains several allegations.
