Opinion: Online Voter Registration Saves Money and Reduces Fraud. So Why Won’t Texas Allow It?

What business spends millions of dollars on paper forms and postage, and hires thousands of employees to decipher and manually enter the information into a computer? The State of Texas.

What state allows private citizen information to be viewed by third parties? Texas.

Texas, the pro-business state that promises privacy to her citizens, refuses to protect the personal information of voters by not allowing online voter registration.

Paper voter registrations are handled by numerous individuals, giving them access to the voter's driver's license and Social Security numbers. Personal information is more secure and taxpayer money is saved with online voter registration.

Texans perform numerous state and local transactions online, including paying property taxes, renewing professional licenses, and applying for driver's licenses. But these internet users cannot register to vote online like residents can in 42 other states, Washington, D.C., and Guam.

It took a federal court order in 2020 to force the state to allow online voter registration for Tex­ans who use the internet to renew their state driver's licenses or update their addresses. And still, allowing all age-eligible citizens online voter registration has met stiff resistance at the Capitol. Con­sider this about online voter registration:

• Security. Online voter registration offers the ultimate security as personal information is protected behind the same firewall that protects all state online transactions. Applicants must provide a Texas Depart­ment of Public Safety driver's license or photo ID, using their identification and audit numbers. Additional security uses signatures on DPS-issued photo identification.

• Accurate voter registration roll. At a time when voter fraud is a political hot topic, an accurate voter registration roll may help subside fears and reduce polling-place confusion. Registering online eliminates incomplete paper and unreadable applications as system users cannot register to vote without completing the application. It stops potential mistakes from unreadable paper applications to ensure the voter's information is entered correctly and matches the name on the voter's state-issued photo identification.

• Saves money. States with online voter registration report significant cost savings. It reduces the need for paid data-entry staff and millions of pieces of paper, which saves money and reduces the state's carbon footprint. In 2002, when former Arizona Repub­lican Secretary of State Jan Brewer made the state the first in the country to offer online voter registration, the 83-cent cost to process a paper application plummeted to 3 cents for an online one. In 2022, Arizona's population was more than 7 million with just over 4 million registered voters. Imagine the cost savings for Texas with its almost 18 million registered voters among the state's 30 million residents.

Online voter registration has bipartisan support across the nation. Red states like Florida and Alabama and blue states like New York and California embrace online voter registration.

It's embarrassing that voter registrars in tech-savvy Texas are required by state law to manually process millions of incomplete and hard-to-read paper voter registration applications at a high cost to taxpayers when fast, safe, and secure proven technology is readily available. Especially when online voter registration has broad-based support in the state. Previously, several election-related groups endorsed online voter registration, including the Texas Association of Coun­ties, Association of Election Admini­strators, and Tax Assessor-Collectors Assoc­., along with many district and county clerks, and county judges and commissioners.

DPS, the state's Department of Informa­tion Services, and secretary of state's office officials have in the past testified before state legislative committees saying online voter registration can be implemented securely and effectively, employing the same security measures that protect Texans' use of other government online transactions.

It's time to operate our voter registration system like any successful business.

Election legislation is controversial right now but letting Texans register to vote online is a process issue, not a partisan one.

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Travis County tax assessor-collector and Voter Registrar Bruce Elfant works on voter outreach, advocating for online voter registration, speaking out for voting rights and reminding county residents it is their patriotic duty to vote. Travis County has the highest voter registration rate among Texas’ urban counties. In the last presidential election, we registered 97% of all eligible voters.