Texas Counties are spending hundreds of thousands of tax-dollars to pay partisan Civic Government Solutions to target potential voters and send unrequested voter registration applications. Powered by People, another organization with ties to the Democratic Party, is using Texas tax-dollars to send voter registration applications.
Registering to vote is not an arduous process and citizens can easily request an application. So why are Texas tax-dollars being used to send voter registration forms to people who did not request them?
It’s Not Necessary
Texans should first question why these programs are even necessary. We do not have compulsory voting in the United States, we have an opt in system. Citizens have the right to vote and the right to not vote. That being said, all legally eligible citizens should have the ability to register to vote, and they do.
First-time voters can request a postage paid application to register to vote from countless websites including the Texas Secretary of State (SOS) or they can simply call their county elections office and have one sent to them. Registration applications are also available at most post offices, libraries, Department of Public Services (DPS) offices, and Texas Health and Human Services (HHS) offices. Most political party offices have them on hand as well. Thousands of volunteer deputy voter registrars are trained and certified each year to go out into the community and provide people an opportunity to register to vote.
Voters who have moved and need to update their voter registration can do so at the DPS when they update their driver’s license or ID card. Even if they choose to update their registration using a different method, they are reminded to do so at the DPS. Voters should not update their registration if they have not updated their form of identification unless they intend to do so soon. If they do, their registration address will not match the one on their ID and they will have to fill out a Statement of Residence (SOR) form in order to vote.
It’s Wasted Resources
The massive cost to tax-payers with very little return is definitely a strong reason to avoid these programs. According to the SOS, 81% of the voting age public (VAP) in Texas is registered to vote. Of that 19% of the population that remains unregistered, 2.8% cannot vote due to felony convictions. Another small percentage are those declared mentally incapacitated so they cannot vote. There is also an unknown percentage of non-citizens counted in those population numbers. That would leave a very small percentage of people, with plenty of other options, that counties are chasing with all that cash.
The voter turnout isn’t even directly related to the increase in registrations. The increased turnouts in November of 2018 and November of 2020 had more to do with candidates and what was happening in the world at the time. Turnout in November of 2022 dropped back down significantly while registrations increased.
It’s Potentially Nefarious
Registering unlikely voters can turn them into victims of ballot harvesters. This is typically done through mail-in voting, but can also be done in person. If there is a polling location where all of the poll workers are from one party and have bad intentions, they can have a list of these voters and take turns casting ballots for them during slow times. The workers would have to forge signatures, but that isn’t difficult when signing on a tablet where signatures rarely come out like they would on paper.
In fact, Civic Government Solutions (CGS), says they send the potential voter “a voter registration application prefilled with their information.” Just as elections offices should not be sending out pre-filled applications to vote by mail, they should not be sending out pre-filled applications to register to vote. They can easily fall into the hands of ballot harvesters who now have a great lead on who to target.
CGS is also targeting voters, choosing where they send voter registration applications and to whom. Can Texans trust that CGS, linked to advocates for the left, will fairly distribute the applications? Are they using the same model as Powered by People and covertly using tax-dollars to get Democrats elected?
Texas tax-dollars should be spent on securing our elections, not sending unsolicited voter registration applications. Encourage your County Judge and Comissioner’s Court to avoid these problematic programs and spend their time and our money on increasing accuracy, transparency, and accountability in our elections.