disenfranchisement

About two weeks ago, I submitted a request for a voter registration application from the Texas Secretary of State's website. The application took a few days to arrive from Austin, and I filled it out and mailed it in last Thursday to the Dallas County Elections Department.

Yesterday I received in the mail a "notice of incomplete information on voter registration application." The notice had seven boxes checked on all the various ways I failed to fill out the form correctly, such as not answering the citizenship question and not providing my driver's license number. I'm pretty sure I know how to fill out a form, and I am pretty sure those questions weren't asked on the form I filled out. The last check box was the most interesting and explained my six other reasons for failing to fill out a form correctly: "you used an old voter registration application. The law has changed and now requires additional information on the new form."*

Recall that I requested my application from the Texas Secretary of State; it doesn't get more official than that. And they are sending out old applications that people are filling out and sending in to their various county election departments eight weeks before the mid-term elections. To the credit of Mr. Bruce Sherbet, the Dallas County Elections Administrator, they notified me of my the Texas Secretary of State's mistake in about a week. But what if I didn't submit the old form until late September? Too bad, you missed the 30 day deadline for voter registration.

Perhaps this was an honest mistake, but to me it is totally inexcusable that the Secretary of State is mailing out old voter registration applications that are no longer being accepted. The whole thing stinks like Katherine Harris's week old eyeliner or Ken Blackwell's dirty moustache.


*Yes, I am well aware of the Help America Vote Act and the new requirements. In fact, I used to work in the congressional office that helped draft and negotiate the legislation. So there, Mr. Sherbet.