Terms of Resolution of Democrats' Lawsuit Against Harris County Registrar

Last month, Harris County Commissioners Court approved the resolution of the lawsuit the Texas and Harris County Democratic Parties, and various individuals, including former judicial candidate Goodwille Pierre had brought against the Harris County Voter Registrar.

The main areas in which the resolution will affect area voters are:

a) Unlike what the Voter Registrar’s Office initially proposed to do in early 2009, the deputy voter registration program cannot be changed from what it was in 2008 (like by reducing or moving the places where voter applications can be turned in by deputy registrars or requiring training at inconvenient locations) without prior approval of the United States Department of Justice.

b) The Voter Registrar cannot cancel voter registration certificates of previously convicted persons without investigating whether they have finished serving their sentences or not and if they have, the Voter Registrar can’t cancel them.

c) The Voter Registrar must comply with all election deadlines contained in the Texas Election Code, including processing all voter applications within seven days of receipt and sending prompt notification to applicants if their applications are rejected for any reason. All timely submitted voter registration applications must be processed before early voting begins. Letters sent notifying voters of deficiencies in their applications must offer the voter assistance in getting voter application problems resolved and must be in all languages required by the Voting Rights Act (currently, English, Spanish, and Vietnamese), as must voter registration applications, rejection letters, and all other correspondence from the Voter Registrar’s Office.

d) The Voter Registrar must provide training to employees to prevent the erroneous or illegal rejection of voter registration applications.

e) The Voter Registrar can no longer reject applications because of a determination that the address given is a commercial, rather than a residential, property. The Voter Registrar also cannot conduct an independent investigation of residence for purposes of cancelling certificates because people have moved.

f) Applications can no longer be rejected solely because the voter failed to check the “I don’t have a TDL” box or other boxes on the form or for other purely technical reasons. The application must be accepted if it contains the voter’s name, residence address, date of birth, signature, citizenship, and TDL or personal identification number or last four digits of his or her social security number or a statement that the applicant does not have any one of those forms of identification. Applications cannot be rejected for failing to provide any other information.

g) Resources (including computer and personnel) must be made available to the Early Voting Ballot Board when it is reviewing provisional ballots. Other changes are made to the manner in which provisional ballots are processed, including, any member of the EVBB must be afforded an opportunity to look at a scan of the provisional ballot affidavit before the Voter Registrar’s personnel ever touch it, and a poll watcher has the right to view that scan.

h) The Voter Registrar must provide county and state chairs, within three days of request, a list of all rejected applications and the reason why they were rejected and must regularly post reports of pending applications and rejections on its website.

i) The Voter Registrar’s Office must provide access to voter registration records to the applicant’s representative upon receipt of a written authorization signed by the applicant.

j) The Voter Registrar’s Office must remain open until all voting is complete when an election is going on.

k) Voter registration information must be updated daily on the Voter Registrar’s website.

l) Within six months, the Voter Registrar must prohibit any employee of the voter registration division from outside employment, or having ownership interest in a company, providing voter information to anybody else.

m) The agreement must be “pre-cleared” by the United States Department of Justice. Once it has been approved by the Department of Justice, any breach of its terms (without prior approval of the Department of Justice) will be a violation of federal law and immediately redressable in federal court.

There are a number of other provisions of the settlement negotiated by TDP attorney Chad Dunn on behalf of the Texas Democratic Party and the Harris County Democratic Party, but the foregoing are some of the more prominent ones.
Gerry Birnberg
Chair, Harris County Democratic Party
November 3, 2009