San Antonio Express-News (Sunday)
Group threatens to sue state over cap on voter forms
The Texas chapter of the League of Women Voters is threatening to sue the state if officials do not provide the organization and other advocacy groups with additional copies of voter registration forms.
The organization made the threat in a letter to Texas Secretary of State John Scott on Friday, taking issue with the office’s decision to limit the number of forms available for political and advocacy groups. The office cited supply chain issues, saying paper shortages and “cost constraints” have forced them to limit orders to 2,000 forms at a time.
But the league alleges that this practice — first reported by KUT — violates the National Voter Registration Act.
“Voter registration organizations play a critical role in registering individuals to vote in Texas — particularly because Texas is one of only eleven states that do not provide their residents the ability to register to vote online,” wrote Grace Chimene, the president of the League of Women Voters of Texas, and Danielle Lang, the senior director of voting rights at Campaign Legal Center.
“As such, any cap on the number of voter registration forms provided to voter registration organizations
is concerning and impedes an organization’s ability to conduct its work.”
Sam Taylor, a spokesman for the Secretary of State’s Office, did not respond directly to the letter’s allegations. But he said the office is “treating all requestors the same, and (we) are aiming to provide 75 percent of all bulk requests for voter registration forms, including to
all of the various LWV chapters across Texas.”
Chimene said that promise isn’t enough, and volunteer advocacy groups — including the League of Women Voters — shouldn’t be responsible for printing out their own forms.
“Which 30 percent are we not going to register?” she said.
The letter noted that Texas has a
$7.85 billion budget surplus, and the state “surely can apportion some of this surplus toward ensuring that every Texas citizen has an opportunity to engage in the fundamental right to vote.”
Jan. 31 is the deadline to register to vote in the March 1 primary.
The lawsuit threat is the latest escalation of the league’s dispute with the Secretary of State’s Office.
Their relationship grew tense last week, after Houston Mayor Sylvester Turner criticized state officials for declining to send 2,000 forms to the league’s Houston chapter.
A volunteer had submitted the request the week before, but the office notified her Tuesday that it was able to send only 50 copies “due to extenuating circumstances beyond our control.”
Turner called the situation “disgraceful,” but Taylor, the spokesman for the Secretary of State’s Office, asserted the accusation was “absolutely false.”
A copy of the volunteer’s emailed request and the ensuing response from the state verifies the league’s account, but it may have been a misunderstanding. Though the volunteer regularly corresponds with the Secretary of State’s Office, she didn’t identify herself in the initial request, potentially causing the confusion, Chimene said.
The office notified Chimene late Thursday that it would send an additional 7,000 free forms to the Houston chapter, but the group had already contracted a third-party company to print 10,000 copies. The effort will cost $1,800, Chimene said.
The league will likely direct the 7,000 forms to another chapter, she said.