Viral Video Exposes Texas’ Deceptive Voter Registration Process

A viral TikTok video highlighted that Texas doesn’t allow people to register to vote online, the state uses vague language to trick people into thinking they are.

Adrienne Quinnn Martin, the Democratic party chair of Hood county, said that in the past elections, she received phone calls from people saying they were turned away on Election Day. 

“After questioning them, I figured out they all had registered online, so I went to the Secretary of State’s website and found this very, what I think, is a very deceptive voter registration page.”

She explained in a viral video that the state’s website uses tricky wording that confuses voters. The page, after asking people to fill out a form, then displays a button that says “submit.” That button could confuse people into thinking they have completed their registration, when in fact the form must be printed, signed and delivered to their county.

“This is a voter suppression trick,” said Martin in the video. “Every other form [on the site] you can hit “Submit” and the form goes through. Why would [a voter] think that they need to print anything out?”

In the video, Martin explains that Texas does not allow online registration. 

According to the Dallas Morning News, more than 40 states in the U.S. offer online registration, with Texas being one of the few exceptions. Some lawmakers have pushed to make online registration available in the state, but committees in both chambers have declined to hold hearings on the issue. Republicans have argued that online registration would make Texas more vulnerable to voter fraud.

Thanks to a lawsuit, however, a federal judge ruled in 2020 that Texas must give people the option to register to vote when they renew or update their driver’s license online. This is the only way a Texas resident can register to vote online.

After Martin’s video went viral, the state on Monday changed the “Submit” button to a “Continue” one.

You can check your registration status on the state’s portal. The deadline to register to vote is Oct. 7