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Online Voter Registration

After more than five years of court battles, a settlement has been reached in litigation brought by Texas voters, the League of Women Voters of Texas and MOVE Texas against the state of Texas for violation of the National Voter Registration Act, commonly known as the ‘motor voter’ law. With this settlement, current and future Texans now have permanent protections safeguarding their right to register to vote any time they update their driver's license online.

The League sent a memo to Congress urging them to include policies in the next COVID-19 stimulus bill that that will protect our elections, protect all families regardless of immigration status, and re-classify the District of Columbia, while continuing to help families, communities, and workers facing hardship due to the coronavirus pandemic.

The League joined over 200 organizations supporting an effort led by the Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights urging federal lawmakers and state elections officials to adopt key policies to ensure both the public’s safety and the orderly conduct of the 2020 primary and general elections in light of the current threat posed by COVID-19.

LWV of Texas filed a federal lawsuit claiming that the state violates the National Voter Registration Act by not providing voter registration with driver’s license applications online.

Action on voting rights in 2016 looks very similar to last year. On the whole, states are passing less restrictive election laws, and even better, more and more states are reforming their election process to help voters.

President Obama delivered his final State of the Union address, and discussed the need to invest in civic engagement and improve our voting and elections systems. Check out our Storify as the League and our supporters live-tweeted the speech!

"The League is pleased to have the power of the presidency behind reforms that lower barriers to voters and help us work toward a more perfect democracy," said President MacNamara.

Leagues across the country can expect to have a busy 2016 legislative session, with the majority of state legislatures beginning their sessions in January. Voters' rights and election laws will be brought to the forefront once again in 2016, and with elections at every level of government, the stakes couldn’t be higher.

In the past month, four states have taken a step to improve access to the polls. Voters in Pennsylvania and Nebraska can now register to vote online, while Iowa and Kentucky will have online voter registration systems by early 2016.

When looking at the now almost complete 2015 state legislative sessions, not only were fewer pieces of anti-voter legislation successful, more pro-voter reforms were introduced and passed!