Motor Voter Judge finds Texas violated law with online site

The National Voter Registration Act requires states to give citizens the opportunity to register to vote when they renew their driver’s licenses.

The legislation was passed in 1993 and went into effect two years later. That means it has been the law for more than 20 years. Six states qualify for an exemption because they allowed election day registrations when the bill was passed. Texas is not one of them.

And that has led to a conflict over whether Texas, in complying with the letter of the law, has tried to circumvent its spirit.

The question concerns online driver’s license renewals. There is generally no problem when a license is renewed in person, but when a Texan goes online to do so, the process is somewhat more complicated and could be confusing—intentionally so, some say. It’s even more complicated because Texas doesn’t have online voter registration, so the procedure includes printing out and mailing a form.

So in 2016 the Texas Civil Rights Project filed a lawsuit against the secretary of state’s office and the Department of Public Safety, charging the more confusing online process violated the Constitution’s Equal Protection Clause.

And this week a federal judge agreed. On Tuesday, U.S. District Judge Orlando Garcia of San Antonio found Texas in violation of the National Voter Registration Act.

The judge said he will figure out in a couple of weeks what the state must do to be in compliance. We hope he comes up with something reasonable.

While it’s easy to ascribe dark motives to the online process, it’s more likely that blame falls to outdated and not particularly user-friendly web design and technology. Anyone who’s tried to navigate any government website knows the feeling. Some work fine. Others make you feel like you’re using AOL during the dial-up days.

Texas should have the chance to update the site and make it user friendly before any other action is taken. The fault was likely not in the intent, but in the execution.

They might want to look into online voter registration as well.