Protecting Our Elections

Guest post by Veronikah Warms, Voting Rights Policy Attorney for the Texas Civil Rights Project

Texas is the hardest state to vote in. Every odd year, the Texas Legislature convenes and passes new voting rules or changes existing ones. And after those laws are on the books, the Secretary of State’s Office and 254 counties have to figure out how to implement them. It is hard enough for professionals in the elections space to keep track of all these changes. But it is so much harder for eligible Texas voters to know what to do when they face problems at the polls.

That’s what the Texas Election Protection Coalition (EP) is for.

The Texas EP Coalition is made up of both national (Lawyer’s Committee for Civil Rights Under Law, LDF, NALEO and others) and state level (Common Cause Texas, ACLU Texas, Texas Civil Rights Project, Disability Rights Texas, and many more) nonprofit non-partisan organizations that have come together to share resources and expertise to help every eligible Texas voter cast their ballot regardless of their English language proficiency, disability, inexperience, or governmental barriers. One of our biggest resources is the non-partisan 866-OUR-VOTE election protection hotline, and you can see below we have multiple hotlines that are available for voters who need language and disability assistance.

But– we can only help with problems that we know about, and that’s where Texans like you come into play. When Texans report problems that they are seeing on the ground to the hotline, we are able to either answer straightforward questions on the spot, or, if the problem is more complicated, we can escalate it to our legal team to help resolve the issue.

The Texas EP Coalition’s legal team has helped voters with disabilities find rides to the polls, walked voters through how to cure their mail-in ballots, and helped Texans stuck in a hospital during an election vote an emergency ballot. And those are just a few of the issues that we have helped voters with before.

Some problems require government involvement to fix. Whether it’s long lines at the polls, voting machine breakdowns, lack of curbside signage, or illegally promoting a candidate too close to a polling place (known as “electioneering”), we will also work with local and state government officials to do everything possible to remedy any election problems voters face at the polls.

Voting in Texas elections is harder than in any other state in our country. And sometimes, our laws do create barriers that folks can’t overcome to vote. In those cases, we take data about the real issues facing Texas voters right to the source of those laws–the Texas Legislature–and we advocate for improvements to make our elections secure and more inclusive. We publish EP reports that outline the issues that are causing problems for Texas voters, from voter intimidation to disability access, and show lawmakers the real world impact voter suppression laws have on Texans.

But we can’t do this alone. We need Texans like you to call the hotline if you see anything that needs addressing. And if you are interested in becoming more involved, consider signing up to be one of our non-partisan poll monitors. These volunteers are trained to spot election law violations and let us know so we can get them fixed.

Every election brings a mix of old and new issues that can impact Texas voters, and with your help, we can make our elections more accessible, fair, and less scary for Texans everywhere.

This article is the first of three in a collaborative project with Texas Civil Rights Project.

TCRP: Texas lawyers and advocates for Texas communities, boldly serving the movement for equality and justice. We will use the law as a sword and shield against abuse, discrimination, disenfranchisement and other injustices, demanding accountability from those in power. We are uniquely homegrown and rooted in Texas. That means we are not tethered to any national bureaucracy and entirely focused on advancing equality and justice in our own backyards.