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votetexas.gov/register-to-vote/
The Voter Registration Deadline for November’s midterm polling is fast-approaching: Texans have until Oct. 5 to ensure they’re good to cast a ballot come the first Tuesday in November.
At the moment, it doesn’t hurt to check – numbers from earlier this year estimated more than a million Texans have been placed on voter suspense lists. That includes 3,906 individuals in Gregg and Upshur Counties.
A just-in-case glance takes, literally, less than 30 seconds via the state’s ‘personal voter portal.’ Only first name, last name and date of birth are necessary along with one of three options: county and zip code, driver’s license or voter ID.
(Find the portal via goelect.txelections.civixapps.com/ivis-mvp-ui/#/login)
Gladewater City Council member André Clay’s glad he took the time to check – it turned out to be a false alarm, but the forward leaning accent on the é in his first name caused some brief confusion.
“We were just having a conversation about voting, and I was looking for my card,” Clay said. After hearing so many voters had been ‘suspended,’ he opened an Internet browser just for peace of mind. That didn’t come immediately: “It looked like I wasn’t in the system.”
All the different search options proved fruitless. Clay couldn’t find the record.
Settling for the analog approach, he dropped by the Gregg County Elections Office after updating the tags on his truck.
“She put the accent over the é and said, ‘It’s right here.’ I guess with the new system, it’s specific,” Clay said. “I’ve never had any problems going in to vote. That’s why I was curious.”
Maybe it wouldn’t have been a problem come Election Day, but Clay’s glad he didn’t chance it. He’s spreading the word to other voters, just in case: don’t get too concerned if the record doesn’t come up immediately, just put in a little more effort to be sure.
“There may be a lot of people in there just like that, thinking they’ve been purged by the system,” he said. “If you don’t know how you’re in the system you’re not going to be able to find yourself in the system. Go check.
“That’s why I’m trying to get everybody to do. Go check and see if you’re in the system.”
According to voter registration figures published in March by the Texas Secretary of State’s office, there are almost 3,100 ‘Suspense Voters’ out of 73,217 registered in Gregg County – about 4.2 percent. In Upshur, it’s 806 voters out of 30,686 (2.6 percent). There are 2,500 suspended out of Smith County’s 160,066 (1.6 percent).
Statewide, the Secretary of State put the number at about 1.2 million Texans after their current addresses could not be verified by mail.
Register to vote online via votetexas.gov/register-to-vote/