Texas’ new drivers license rule may make it tougher for trans people to vote

A leading voter-education group said the state’s rule change will intimidate trans voters, create confusion at polling places.

by Sanford Nowlin August 22, 2024April 10, 2025

News

Texas election officials are dealing with a flood of challenges to voter registrations

Conservative groups and individual activists have targeted tens of thousands of Texans over their eligibility. But state and federal protections are in place.

by Natalia Contreras, VoteBeat and The Texas Tribune August 16, 2024August 26, 2024

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Voting Rights Act doesn’t protect coalitions of racial or ethnic groups challenging political maps, appeals court rules

In a lawsuit challenging redistricting in Galveston County, the 5th Circuit said the protections afforded to a single racial group don’t apply to multiple groups who collectively claim voting rights violations.

by DanteDante Motley, The Texas Tribune August 3, 2024May 1, 2025

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Bad Takes: Taking voting rights from people convicted of felonies is a form of ballot suppression

Disenfranchisement laws date back to the Jim Crow era, and they primarily targeted Black people, according to experts.

by Kevin Sanchez June 11, 2024June 13, 2025

News

Texas appeals court overturns Crystal Mason’s conviction, 5-year sentence for illegal voting

Mason gained national attention after she was convicted for voting while under supervised release for felony tax fraud. She said she didn’t know she was ineligible to vote.

by Karen Brooks Harper, The Texas Tribune March 29, 2024August 16, 2024

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Poor People’s Campaign looks to mobilize Texas voters ahead of November election

The group will march on the Texas Capitol and 30 other statehouses on March 2.

by Sanford Nowlin February 20, 2024December 19, 2024

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Analysis: It took me three tries to register to vote in Texas — and I’m an elections reporter

Moments after I became a naturalized citizen in 2023, I registered to vote. Here’s what happened next.

by Natalia Contreras, VoteBeat and The Texas Tribune February 13, 2024August 3, 2024

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Why this South Texas county closed half its early voting sites for 2024

A new law requires small counties to increase early voting days and hours — with no new money from the state.

by Natalia Contreras, VoteBeat and The Texas Tribune February 6, 2024February 9, 2024

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San Antonio judge hearing challenge to Texas voting law passed in 2021

Groups including the League of Women Voters of Texas and Southwest Voter Education Project argue the law makes it harder for people of color to cast ballots.

by Sanford Nowlin September 11, 2023February 13, 2024

News

Illegal voting in Texas likely to be a felony again after state House vote

The Texas Senate has passed similar legislation. But a key policy separates the two chambers.

by Bryan Lopez and Pooja Salhotra, The Texas Tribune, and Natalia Contreras, VoteBeat and The Texas Tribune April 27, 2023September 14, 2024

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Cannabis Reform, Voting Rights: The top 10 headlines in San Antonio this week

Our cover story delved into a raft of new bills filed by Texas Republicans that critics say are meant to suppress the vote.

by San Antonio Current Staff February 24, 2023September 18, 2023

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Texas avoided election violence. Advocates say voters still need more protection.

Citing thousands of complaints received throughout the midterm cycle, voter advocacy groups want the Texas Legislature to bolster voter protection and education measures, and revisit recently passed laws that empowered partisan poll watchers.

by Robert Downen, The Texas Tribune November 11, 2022November 2, 2024

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Here’s what to do if you encounter harassment at the polls in Texas on voting day

Voting rights groups said incidents of harassment are incredibly rare. Just they same, they operate voter-protection hotlines in multiple languages.

by Sanford Nowlin November 8, 2022August 17, 2023

News

These Texans were trying to help run elections. Then Ken Paxton’s office launched criminal investigations.

Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton hasn’t just been pursuing supposed voter fraud. His office has also criminally investigated at least 10 election workers, in a harbinger of potential post-midterm turmoil.

by Cassandra Jaramillo and Joshua Kaplan, ProPublica November 5, 2022November 2, 2024

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College voters held back by Texas election law, lack of on-campus polling sites

Many Texas universities don’t have early-voting locations on campus. And state laws regarding voter ID and registration make it hard to turn out younger voters, advocates say.

by Alex Nguyen, The Texas Tribune October 28, 2022September 13, 2024

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New study ranks Texas 46th in the nation for voting access, a decline from the prior year

The Lone Star State’s drop was largely due to the passage of a Republican-championed bill that further restricted poll access.

by Sanford Nowlin October 27, 2022November 21, 2023

News

Early voting has started in Texas. Here are your rights at the polls.

Early voting runs from Monday, Oct. 24, to Friday, Nov. 4. The last day to apply to vote by mail is Friday, Oct. 28. Election Day is Tuesday, Nov. 8.

by María Méndez, The Texas Tribune October 24, 2022October 22, 2024

A voter leaves the Bexar County Elections Department office.

News

Voters of color had mail-in ballots rejected at higher rates than white voters in Texas’ March primary

Asian voters were most disproportionately affected by the new ID requirements included in voting restrictions passed by the 2021 Legislature, a Brennan Center for Justice analysis found.

by Natalia Contreras, VoteBeat and The Texas Tribune October 20, 2022August 17, 2023

News

Judge orders Bexar County to add dozens more voting locations around San Antonio for midterms

The county must operate 388 voting centers to comply with state law, Visiting Judge Martha Tanner ruled.

by Sanford Nowlin October 11, 2022August 17, 2023

News

How the debunked conspiracy film 2000 Mules became Texas Republican orthodoxy

Watchdog groups fear the film will fuel chaos in the upcoming midterm elections and could be a pretext for more restrictive voting laws in the future.

by Robert Downen, The Texas Tribune October 9, 2022February 26, 2024