The 2022 midterms were the first major election in which Texas voters had to navigate a slew of confusing and restrictive new voting rules. I’m one of them. Voting in that election wasn’t easy or cheap, and to this day, I am unsure whether my vote was counted. Unfortunately, things haven’t gotten any better since then — and there are thousands of other Texans in a similar situation.
The problems are the result of Senate Bill 1, enacted in 2021. Among other things, it imposed new penalties on those who assist voters with casting a ballot and limited the ability of community and faith-based organizations to engage in nonpartisan voter outreach activities. Personally, I found the requirement for voters to put either the last four digits of their driver’s license or Social Security number on mail ballot applications and mail ballots to be the most confusing.
My family is from Comal County, and as a student at Bowdoin College in Maine, I’ve been voting absentee by mail in Texas elections. A month before Election Day, I printed and filled out my mail-in ballot application. I decided to fill out the form using the last four digits of my driver’s license number. I found out later that the number must match the one I had registered to vote with over a year before, and I did not remember whether I had used my driver’s license or Social Security number.
A few weeks later, I received a notice from the county clerk’s office that my mail ballot application had been rejected because the identification number used did not match my voter registration information. I immediately contacted the clerk’s office for help determining the issue with my apparently insufficient application. I asked which form of identification I had on file for my voter registration, but they said they didn’t know. I was instructed to re-submit my ballot application — without any additional clarity or direction on which identifying information I should include.
I looked for information online about what to do and saw social media users suggesting that voters include both a partial Social Security number and driver’s license number to be overly cautious, as many could not remember which one they used to register.
This strategy worked, but I didn’t receive my mail ballot until Election Day — and the deadline for the state to receive it was the next day, so I had to express ship it for $50.
Tracking the ballot through the shipping service, I saw that my ballot arrived the day after the election. But I was unable to confirm on the state’s tracking website that the local election office received my ballot in time, so to this day, I’m still not sure that it was counted.
I later learned that my experience was not unique, and it inspired me to engage in work to protect voting rights. I’m currently an intern at the Brennan Center, whose research found that this single new requirement led to massive voter disenfranchisement. In the March 2022 primary alone, Texas rejected approximately 12,000 mail-in ballot applications and 25,000 mail-in ballots — and voters of color were far more likely to have their ballots rejected than white voters. Further, a follow-up study found that that such rejections dissuaded people from trying to vote in the future.
The Brennan Center and other groups have sued to challenge this and other provisions of S.B.1. Earlier this year, a federal court struck down several parts of the law, but the ruling has been put on hold while appeals play out. That litigation includes claims under the Voting Rights Act, which was passed 60 years ago next week. This and similar cases underscore just how important the landmark law’s legal protections are to this day.
Unfortunately, the Supreme Court has chipped away at Voting Rights Act, making it harder to successfully challenge voter suppression policies. Lawmakers should aim to make it easier to participate in democracy, not harder.
Abigail Martin is a Brennan Center intern and a student at Bowdoin College.
