Dallas County commissioners voted for a measure calling for the state and federal governments to "simplify" the voting process. Dallas County Judge Clay Jenkins introduced the "Simplified Voting to Strengthen our Democracy" resolution Tuesday morning.
"It struck me that now is the time to make it easier to vote and to strengthen the belief in the legitimacy in our elections by having more people participate," Jenkins said.
Jenkins said the concept came to him while watching the riot in Washington D.C. earlier this month.
"It struck me just how close we are to losing this democracy we hold so dear," he said.
The resolution contains four points:
1) Enact Automatic Voter Registration-Congress should pass the Automatic Voter Registration Act, and states should continue to adopt automatic voter registration.We should support bills that allow an easier process to become a registered voter.
2) Restore the Voting Rights Act-Congress should restore the full protections of the Voting Rights Act, and states should supplement those protections.The Voting Rights Act was landmark legislation that finally leveled access to the playing field for African Americans in this country who had been denied a basic guaranteed right simply based on skin color. The Voting Rights Act must be affirmed now to ensure the Jim Crow laws that denied these rights to our fellow citizens never resurfaces in this nation.
3) Expand Early Voting-Congress should set minimum early voting requirements in federal elections, and the states that don’t offer early voting should adopt it.While Texas has fairly liberal early voting laws, the access to early voting sites is not equal across counties. Texas must ensure that early voting sites remains accessible in every county and give each county local authority to expand (but not restrict) early voting as needed for their constituents
4) Prevent Long Lines at the Polls-Congress and the states should set and enforce standards to ensure all polling places have sufficient voting machines, poll workers, and other resources to avoid long lines.The expansion of Vote by Mail would help to reduce unnecessary lines at polling locations. Texas has a history of successfully implementing absentee voting and could put the necessary protections in place to allow this an additional option for voters.
"It's amazing that in the 21st century, we're doing this resolution," says Commissioner Elba Garcia. "Let's face it. Americans have been voting by mail since the Civil War. There's nothing new here."
The measure passed 4-1. JJ Koch was the only commissioner to vote against the resolution.
"Don't tell me this is about restoring faith when it's just about increasing ease, something entirely different," he said.
If Jenkins wanted to increase faith in the electoral process, Koch says he should have crafted a measure that increases transparency.
The Dallas County Republican Party says the elections department showed in November it has not handled vote-by-mail well.
"In October, the Dallas County Elections Administration couldn’t provide an accurate number of applications received for a ballot by mail, nor could they provide an accurate number of ballots they had mailed out. How can we expect them to handle an expansion of mail-in voting when they couldn’t handle the 2020 election?" Dallas County Republican Party Communications Director Will Busby wrote in a statement.
Jenkins cited a University of Houston poll showing 66% of those who responded support online registration.
The resolution does not change any laws but simply asks for the changes to be made at the state and federal level.