In Violation of Texas Law, Most High Schools Aren't Giving Students the Chance to Register to Vote

[workinclasszero]

Abysmal compliance with a decades-old state law is leaving at least 180,000 high school seniors off the current voter rolls, according to a new report.
by Ruben Paquian Published Thu, Aug 2, 2018

About two-thirds of Texas high schools are not following a state law that mandates giving all eligible students the opportunity to register to vote, according to a new report. That means hundreds of thousands of potential voters have been left off the rolls.

For three decades, public and private high school principals in Texas have been required to distribute voter registration applications to all students who will be 18 years old that school year. The law stipulates that students be offered the applications at least twice per year. But without an enforcement mechanism or sufficient outreach by the state, compliance has been “abysmal,” according to the Texas Civil Rights Project’s report.

Since the 2016 presidential election, only a third of public high schools with more than 20 seniors requested a single voter registration form from the secretary of state’s office, the report’s authors found. In other words, two-thirds of public high schools in Texas didn’t even take the first step in complying with the law, leaving out at least 183,000 students in the last two years alone.

https://www.texasobserver.org/in-violation-of-texas-law-most-high-schools-arent-giving-students-the-chance-to-register-to-vote/

[duforsure]

1. When criminals are in charge

In Texas this is what happens, and Abbott , and many others should be voted out of office ASAP.

[Gothmog]

2. The Texas Civil Rights Project and other groups are trying to fix this

[workinclasszero]

3. Sure is a lot of voter suppression

going on there.

[LeftInTX]

5. More like schools that are overwhelmed.

My husband is a principal.

He's a Deputy Voter Registrar.

I've had to remind him to get this done several times per year. I've had to show the law to him.

It was always at the whim of the Civics teacher. His school was usually pretty good.

My kids all got registered at school. (Same school district)


Last year, they finally contracted with a civic group to come out and get the students registered twice a year.

[Susan Calvin]

9. That's great!

I don't know of many schools that put that much into it.

Link to do-it-yourself site downthread. All they have to do is fill out the web form, and sign and send the application when it arrives. They even get a stamped, addressed envelope!

[Susan Calvin]

4. Sheese.

All they have to do is put out mail-it-in-yourself forms. No DVR needed. Or posters with QR codes to refer them to the do-it-yourself website. (Will look up URL and post later.)

[LeftInTX]

6. My husband was doing the mail-ins from his school and found out it was illegal.

Students are supposed to take the mail-ins home and mail them from their own mailbox.

(Texas, texas, texas)

[Susan Calvin]

7. I think you can mail them for other people

only if you are a DVR. There's two different kinds of forms. And, man, there's all sorts of rules and deadline about handling the DVR kind.

I'm going to go find the web thing.

[LeftInTX]

10. I'm a DVR and NO you cannot mail them for the voter.

The voter must mail the mail-in themselves.

We can accompany voters to their mailbox to assure that they are mailed.

Anyone can hand out mail-in ballots. When a DVR hands out a mail-in ballot, it is no different than an non-DVR handing out a mail-in ballot.

[Susan Calvin]

11. You are right.

I was thinking of the ones you have to carry in by hand.

I think the web thing is the greatest thing since sliced bread, if the word gets out sufficiently.

[Susan Calvin]

8. Here it is! Way cool.

Article:
https://www.austintech.org/new-way-get-registered-register2vote-org/

Site:
https://register2vote.org

Please share - it was not easy to Google. I found it again only when the actual name of the site (good name) popped back into my head.