State fights proposed motor-voter fixes
Texas AG says what civil rights group wants isn’t workable, goes past what’s required by federal law.
After losing a legal fight over the way Texas handles online voter registration, state lawyers are arguing that fixes proposed by a civil rights group go too far and should be rejected.
U.S. District Judge Orlando Garcia of San Antonio had given both sides until Thursday to submit plans that will let Texans easily register to vote when they obtain or renew a driver’s license on the Department of Public Safety website.
The current system violates the National Voter Registration Act’s motor-voter provision, Garcia ruled, because online users are directed to a separate page run by the Texas secretary of state, where they must download a voter registration form, print it out and mail it to their county registrar.
Lawyers with the Texas Civil Rights Project submitted a seven-page list of solutions that would give DPS 45 days to create a system that would ask online users if they want to register, or update their address on voter rolls, with every driver’s license transaction.
The organization’s plan, designed to make voter registration easier for the estimated 1.5 million Texans who handle driver’s license transactions online each year, would require DPS to send the information to the secretary of state’s office, which would forward it to county voter registrars.
Instead of submitting a correction plan, however, Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton delivered a list of objections to the civil rights group’s proposals, saying they are unworkable and go beyond what is required by federal law.
First, Paxton said, 45 days is not enough time to change online procedures. The state’s current online vendor cannot complete changes before its contract expires Sept. 1, and the new vendor would need 90 days to create a process, he said.
Second, many of the pro-