Texas has added nearly 2 million people to its voter rolls since the 2018 midterm elections. But new or unregistered Texans only have until Tuesday to add their names to the list to be able to vote in next month鈥檚 general election.
Voting in Texas is county-based, so officials with the Texas Secretary of State are urging unregistered Texans to make sure to send registration forms to their local offices. The good news is that applications only need to be postmarked by Tuesday to qualify, even if they are processed later.
鈥淚t鈥檚 a post-mark deadline,鈥� said Sam Taylor, the assistant secretary of state for communications at the Texas Secretary of State. 鈥淎s long as the voter registration is in the mail by the end of the day on Oct. 11 it doesn鈥檛 matter when it was received.鈥� (A directory of county offices can be found .)
As of Thursday, about 17.6 million Texans were registered to vote, to the Texas Secretary of State. That鈥檚 compared to about that were registered during the 2018 midterms.
Taylor attributed the increase, in part, to the large number of new Texans that have moved to the state in the last four years and a general increase in voter participation since 2016.
鈥淭he 2018 midterms were interesting because the turnout was much higher than the overall turnout in the 2014 midterms, which was 33% and then it jumped up to 53 % in the 2018 midterms,鈥� he said. 鈥淚 think it鈥檚 generally correct to say that anything post-2016 ends up being a higher turnout in comparisons to other midterm years.鈥�
The highlights on the November ballot include the statewide gubernatorial contest between incumbent Republican Gov. Greg Abbott and his challenger, Beto O鈥橰ourke; and the between incumbent Ken Paxton and his Democratic challenger Rochelle Garza. Texas鈥� state house and U.S. House incumbents are also on the ballot in local races as their terms are served two years at a time.
The Texas Secretary of State also offers a tool on its website for Texans to verify their registration .
Other key dates include Oct. 28, which is the deadline to apply for a mail-in ballot. Unlike the voter registration deadline however, the mail-in ballot application must be processed 鈥� not just postmarked 鈥揵y that date. Early voting begins Oct. 24 and Election Day is Nov. 8.
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Got a tip? Email Juli谩n Aguilar at jaguilar@kera.org.You can follow Juli谩n on Twitter @nachoaguilar.
