What Starts in Texas Doesn’t Always Stay in Texas: Why Texas’s Systematic Elimination of Grassroots Voter Registration Drives Could Spread

May 30, 2018

Voter registration drives are a key tool in boosting civic participation and building grassroots power. For decades they have played a significant role in increasing voter registration rates, particularly among underrepresented communities. However, in the last decade, states such as Texas have taken steps to disenfranchise eligible voters by introducing laws that make conducting voter registration drives nearly impossible and wrought with legal liability.

In a new ACS Issue Brief, Mimi Marziani, President of the Texas Civil Rights Project, and Robert Landicho, Associate at Vinson & Elkins LLP, explain how the restrictive voter registration scheme in Texas came to be and where the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals erred in upholding it. In the Issue Brief, they make the case that the Fifth Circuit’s reasoning is ripe for a challenge and lay out the bases for contesting the decision, providing a roadmap to fight back in Texas and beyond.

Read the full Issue Brief here: What Starts in Texas Doesn’t Always Stay in Texas: Why Texas’s Systematic Elimination of Grassroots Voter Registration Drives Could Spread