Told it was breaking the law and asked to propose a fix, Texas seems to have mostly declined in a new filing the state’s legal adversaries have called “bad faith foot-dragging.”
Following a ruling last month that Texas was violating a federal law designed to ease the voter registration process, U.S. District Judge Orlando Garcia ordered both the state and the voting rights advocacy group that sued Texas to submit detailed plans for fixing the violation. The Texas Civil Rights Project submitted its plan Thursday afternoon. About three hours later, Texas responded with a document criticizing that group’s proposal as overly broad and once again disputing the judge’s ruling. It did not present a clear, specific solution of its own.
Garcia ruled in April that Texas was violating a federal law often called the Motor Voter Act by failing to allow Texas drivers to register to vote online while they update their license information. Texans can already register in person at Department of Public Safety offices, but not when they renew their licenses online.
That disparate treatment was at the heart of the lawsuit filed against the state in 2016 by the Texas Civil Rights Project on behalf of several Texas voters who, the group argues, are among the thousands of voters disenfranchised by Texas’ current system.