Federal judge: Texas is violating national voter registration law

[Gothmog]

The Texas Democratic Party has been trying to get an online voter registration bill through the Texas legislature for the last two or three sessions. The Texas GOP know that such a bill would save money but the Texas GOP does not want to do anything that might make it easier to vote. A ruling today could help https://www.texastribune.org/2018/04/03/federal-judge-hands-texas-loss-voter-registration-lawsuit/?utm_campaign=trib-social&utm_medium=social&utm_source=twitter&utm_content=1522792448

Handing the state another voting rights loss, a federal judge has sided with a civil rights group that claimed Texas violated federal law by failing to register residents to vote when they updated their drivers’ license information online.

In a court order made public on Tuesday, U.S. District Judge Orlando Garcia of San Antonio ruled that Texas was in violation of the federal National Voter Registration Act. A portion of that law requires states to give residents the opportunity to register to vote at the same time that they apply for or renew their driver’s licenses.

It wasn’t immediately clear how Garcia will direct the state to comply with the law; Garcia indicated he will provide more details in the next two weeks. But the Texas Civil Rights Project, which represents several Texas voters in the case, said the state would “soon be forced” to change its voter registration policies — and possibly introduce its first mechanism for online voter registration.

“For too long, the state of Texas has ignored federal voting rights laws intended to ensure that all eligible voters have an opportunity to register to vote,” said Beth Stevens, voting rights director at the Texas Civil Rights Project. “We look forward to seeing deep changes in [the Texas Department of Public Safety’s] voter registration practices in the coming months, affecting well over a million Texans every year.”

Several years ago, California lost a similar lawsuit and responded by adopting automatic voter registration. That is not going to happen in Texas but I would love to see an on-line voter registration system.

Anyway, congrats to Mimi and the Texas Civil Rights Project for this win.

[Eliot Rosewater]

1. Dont you wish repubilcans didnt hate democracy? I do.

[Gothmog]

2. After TCRP federal lawsuit, advocates anticipate court-ordered changes to Texas agencys voter regi

Here is the release from the Texas Civil Rights Project http://texascivilrightsproject.org/feder-judge-finds-texas-violated-national-voter-registration-act/

Texas — Today, Judge Orlando Garcia, Chief Judge of the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Texas, granted Plaintiffs’ Motion for Summary Judgement in Stringer v. Pablos, which argued that the State violated the federal National Voter Registration Act (“NVRA”) (or “motor voter” law) and the U.S. Constitution by failing to register Texans to vote when they updated their drivers’ license information online. The Judge indicated that a full opinion on the case will be released at a later date.

In early 2016, the Texas Civil Rights Project, along with co-counsel Waters Kraus LLP, sued the state of Texas for refusing to register the more than 1.5 million Texans who update their information online annually through the Department of Public Safety (“DPS”) website. The State’s failures violate the NVRA as well as the Equal Protection Clause.

In April 2017, Judge Garcia denied the State’s attempt to dismiss the lawsuit after carefully considering, and rejecting, each of the State’s arguments.

The order today means that Texas will soon be forced to comply with the NVRA. Every year, countless Texans try to update their drivers license and voter registration records through the DPS website, and believe they have done so. But when they attempt to vote, thousands (at least) have found themselves to be unregistered and and forced to cast provisional ballots, which did not count.

Mimi is a former Brennan Center lawyer and I am glad that she is at the TRCP

[czarjak]

3. I knew it!

[czarjak]

4. Texas...

We cheat bigger, huh, Greg?

[Javaman]

5. It must be a day that ends in "Y". nt