State appeals order on voter registration

Three days after a federal judge gave Texas a month and a half to implement a system that would allow motorists to register to vote when they update their driver’s license information online, state officials appealed.

Chief U.S. District Judge Orlando Garcia issued a judgment Friday that gives the state 45 days from its filing to “permit simultaneous voter registration with online driver’s license renewal and change-of-address transactions.” The seven-page judgment came a month after a finding the state violated federal law designed to ease the voter registration process.

Friday’s judgment also would give the state two weeks to create an education plan to make sure voters know about the new registration option. The judgment would also place Texas under monitoring for three years, requiring state officials to submit data during that period to lawyers for the Texas Civil Rights Project, which sued Texas in 2016 over allegations that it violated the law.

But the group only had hours to celebrate. Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton filed a notice Monday afternoon saying he has appealed the matter to the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in New Orleans, where his office has readily been able to block lower-court rulings against the state in cases having to do with voter rights and other electiontype cases.

A spokeswoman said Paxton’s office had no further comment Monday.

In a prior ruling in April, Garcia found state officials violated the National Voter Registration Act — often called “motor voter” — and the equal protection clause of the U.S. Constitution, by Texas’ disparate treatment of voters who want to change their driver’s license addresses in person and those who want to do so online.

Currently, Texans who move to a different county and change their address online with the Department of Public Safety have to print out a different form and mail it to their new county elections office, even after checking a box indicating they want their voter registration changed.

But when that change is made in person, DPS automatically ships the new address to the voter registration office and updates the voter’s information.

In that previous ruling, the judge asked for proposals to fix the violations. The Texas Civil Rights Project submitted a list of proposed solutions that gives the Texas Department of Public Safety 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.