A federal judge has ordered the State of Texas to fix an issue in which Texans are not able to register to vote at the same time as they renew or update their driver’s license online.

By currently making those who access the Texas Department of Public Safety’s website for driver’s license renewals have to then access a separate website requiring that voter registration forms be downloaded, printed out, and mailed, Texas is in violation of the 1993 Voter Registration act.

U.S. District Judge Orlando Garcia ruled that by making Texas residents who are eligible to vote take those extra steps they are violating the “motor voter” provision whose sole design is to encourage voter participation.

Unfortunately, this marks the 2nd time since 2018 that a federal judge has ruled Texas is not adhering to voter registration law.  A similar ruling was made in 2018 but was overturned on appeal when it was determined that those affected were ultimately registered to vote at the time it was taken to court and the initial ruling was made.

Judge Garcia has given Texas up until September 23 to make the necessary changes to Texas DPS’ website that will allow the process of registering to vote to happen simultaneously when updating a driver’s license and without having to access a different website.

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