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More than 2,000 applications for Texas voting submitted via an online service are invalid, state officials said. Travis County officials, however, said they would accept such applications.
Texas does not allow online registration, but Vote.org, a website run by a nonprofit organization based in California, appears to have found a loophole in allowing voters to fill out an application in the United States. line and attach a photo of their signature, which the service then faxed. and mailed to election administrators.
State law allows residents to send their application for registration by fax if they follow a copy by mail to the county registrar within four business days.
Secretary of State Rolando Pablos' office told the company earlier this week that she did not consider these records valid because they did not carry the original signatures. Although site administrators do not agree, to avoid further complication, they have stopped processing applications in Texas this way and are now asking users to print and post their forms.
"We remind all eligible voters in Texas that online registration is not available in the state of Texas," Pablos' office said in a statement released on Wednesday. "No website that unduly claims to help voters register to vote online by simply submitting a digital signature is not allowed to do so."
Pablos urged voters to check the status of their registration and find more information about the registration procedure on VoteTexas.gov.
Bruce Elfant, Travis County Tax Appraiser, however, indicated that he had consulted with the County Attorney's Office, who had informed him that copies of the voter registration forms were acceptable in under the law of the state. The statue that allows fax entries to send a copy by mail, not an original, he said. He said his office received just under 800 nominations via Vote.org.
"Our position is that we will accept them until someone with any authority tells us not to do it," said Elfant. "My legal adviser is confident that we have a solid legal basis, but if that changes, we will ensure that all these voters have the opportunity to vote."
Secretary of State Sam Taylor's spokesman said state law requires the application to be "written and signed by the plaintiff".
If the County were to send incomplete nomination notices, Mr. Elfant stated that these candidates would have 10 days from receipt of this notice to return an application bearing the original signature, even if it is after the deadline. registration to vote.
Four counties
According to the Brennan Center for Justice at New York University School of Law, 38 states are offering online registration or will be available soon.
In Texas, Vote.org also offered services in Bexar, Dallas and Cameron counties. Bexar County officials will send incomplete application notices. Cameron County and Dallas County officials did not respond to requests for comment.
The site launched this year's service in five other states – Alaska, Colorado, Kansas, South Carolina and Washington, DC – and had no problem elsewhere, said Sarah Jackel, General Counsel of Vote.org. .
Although Jackel stated that she did not agree with the state 's position and that she found it "unsettling", the group suppressed the situation. fax-mail option, notified users by email and sent them a copy of their form that they could sign and post. an envelope provided, addressed and stamped.
Users can also wait to receive an incomplete registration notice and fill it out, sign it and return it, or they can re-register using any of the available methods.
Legal challenges?
Taylor said that the state secretary's office had no legal power to challenge Travis County's position, nor a power of enforcement. All he can do is offer advice.
"Officials who defend online voter registration are urged to follow the legislative process instead of bypassing the law and submitting invalid voter registrations to court proceedings," Taylor said in a statement. communicated.
If a county chooses to ignore its guidelines, Taylor said that it opened the possibility for a registered voter to legally challenge the validity of those registrations at Vote.org, or that a losing candidate would A narrow margin election could challenge the outcome, leaving a judge to decide on the validity of those entries.
The problem could be solved by allowing online registration and increasing accessibility, Elfant said. He said that states with such laws generally have higher registration rates, higher accuracy in applications, and lower election office costs.
"I hope the leaders of our state, very adamant in the idea of running the state of Texas as a business, would seriously consider online registration," he said. declared. "What business in our time would operate in the same way as voter registration in Texas?"
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