TikTok video brings attention to lack of online voter registration in Texas

AUSTIN, Texas — A video from Hood County Democratic Party Chair Adrienne Quinn Martin gained more than 41,000 views on TikTok in late July. The video highlights the lack of an online voter registration process in Texas. It shows the Texas Secretary of State’s online form where applicants can fill out their information and press submit. 

Martin says she made the video because she got several calls in 2020 from voters who thought they were registered, waited in line to vote, and were turned away.  

Online registration is only available if renewing a driver’s license, as Texas Republicans have shot down efforts to expand the online application to all prospective voters for nearly a decade. Texas is one of seven states that do not have online voter registration, so the website can be misleading. 

“I went on all seven websites and none of them had the kind of deceptive form like Texas. And Texas was absolutely the biggest one of them,” said Martin. 

Nearly one week after Martin’s video got popular, she posted a second video showing that the Secretary of State changed its form.

A spokesperson for the Secretary of State’s office, Alicia Pierce, says they updated the button to “add clarity to the process,” adding that the “office helps facilitate voter registration multiple ways, including providing an online application form Texans can, print, sign and mail.” 

“Every eligible voter has the right to cast a ballot,” said Texas Secretary of State Jane Nelson. 

But ultimately counties are responsible for their own voter registration administration. It’s why hundreds of election officials flocked to Austin Tuesday to prepare for November’s election. 

“Talk to other counties and how they do their stuff to give us good ideas in what we do,” said Sheila Houston with Jasper County. 

Part of the collaboration includes ways to store the paper registration information. Casey McClellan’s company, ECM Today, digitally stores data for 10 Texas counties. A juxtaposition to the voter registration process, but McClellan says it’s just as secure.

“There are many layers of security that have to be proven in order for a document to be stored,” said McClellan. 

Martin still believes online registration should be allowed in the state. 

“Texas is too big of a state to be this far behind in technology that we’re still having to have paper to register to vote,” she said. 

Voters can check their registration status or find an application to register on VoteTexas.gov. The last day to register to vote for the November election is Oct. 7.