We Could Have Better Supported Texas Voters During Pandemic

We are just a couple of days away from the first day of early voting in the Texas primary runoffs, rescheduled back in March to be held on July 14th because of the then rising threat of COVID-19 (a threat that unfortunately shows no signs of stopping).

The ongoing pandemic has laid bare many grim realities for Texans — From a nationwide disproportionate impact to Black and Latinx communities that leaves our state in particular with many unknowns, to the failures to keep those in the prison systems adequately safe and healthy, to the cruel irony that a state with one of the highest uninsured populations of residents is also shaping up to be among the sickest as the case count and hospitalization count continue to rise.

So it should come as no surprise that another one of these grim realities we’re being made to face now is this: We could have had systems in place to better provide for the Texas vote this election year.

That’s not to say that we’re out of time (though the clock is ticking) but what cannot and should not be glossed over is the simple fact that if we’d done more proactive planning, if those in power were more forward thinking in their efforts to support voting and better civic engagement in our state, Texas would have been in a far better position to serve its voters this particularly challenging year.

Suppose, for instance, that we’d already had statewide online voter registration available in Texas before COVID-19 hit (something our state would rather fight tooth and nail). Had this system — which we know to be cost effective, efficient, convenient for voters — already been in place before the pandemic started sweeping through cities and states across the country, we might have been better equipped to handle the stark drop off in registrations that occurred because of the very real need to shelter in place and social distance in our communities. Voting is extremely important and it’s hard to wrap one’s head around the number of eligible voices that have maybe been kept out of the process because those of us who focus on voter outreach haven’t been able to connect with them thus far. Time is of the essence. So is a healthy population.

And what of the state’s response thus far to the current health crisis and its implications at the polls? The guidelines put forth by the Texas Secretary of State at various points feel more “DIY voting during a pandemic” than they do a set of actionable policies. Could we have better protected polling places in the time of COVID instead of what’s shaping up to be a medley of solutions developed by county officials across the state who are strapped and doing their best?

We already know that we could have done so much more to help mitigate health risks for whole communities as well as the crowd size on Election Day this July by expanding vote by mail access to all eligible Texas voters. We already know that vote by mail is a recommended method for participating in the electoral process by the CDC amidst the COVID crisis and that it’s a tried and true system of voting that has been used by members of both major political parties for years.

However we could have also taken action in the “before virus times” to strengthen our vote by mail system as it exists because it is not without its pitfalls thanks to a signature match process that can often leave voters without enough time to be notified of a potential signature issue with their ballot.

All of these steps would have, had they been resolved and in place before the unthinkable disrupted all of our daily lives for the foreseeable future, done so much more than just provide some stable infrastructure in our voting process during a critically important election year.
They would have been a reassuring comfort to us as voters in a time where comforts and feeling “sure” are hard to come by.

Texas voters deserve more than a system that, it would certainly seem, is forever relying on hindsight to guide its next steps when it comes to making any kind of changes or improvements to the institution of voting. We deserve a little more foresight than that. We deserve to vote in a state that prioritizes the health of the electoral process and the engagement of its people as much as we, its citizens do.

It’s not finding a cure for a deadly virus after all, it’s just common sense solutions that make voting better and yes, a little easier, at a time when we really do need it the most.