Voter Qualifications: TEXAS Texas Secretary of State Elections Division 11/16/2018 Voter Qualifications: TEXAS Presenter: Oscar Trejo September 2015 Texas Secretary of State Elections Division Texas Secretary of State Elections Division

Texas Secretary of State Table of Contents Registering to vote in Texas Qualifications Registering within a specific county Registering at a Business Address Live Check Verifying Eligibility 11/16/2018 Texas Secretary of State

Eligibility to vote in Texas Sec. 11.001 Qualified voter Resident of territory covered Satisfy all other requirements for voting per election 11/16/2018 Texas Secretary of State

Eligibility to vote in Texas (cont’d) Sec. 11.002 18 years + U.S. Citizen No final judgment of totally or partially mentally incapacitated without the right to vote Not a felon, or if yes-be completely done with all aspects of sentence (be off-paper) Resident of Texas Registered voter 11/16/2018 Texas Secretary of State

Definition of a Registered Voter Texas Secretary of State Elections Division 11/16/2018 Definition of a Registered Voter Section 1.005 Definitions (16) “Registered voter” means a person registered to vote in this state whose registration is effective* Section 13.143 – Effective date of registration (EDR) *Effective date of registration (EDR): 30 days after the date the application is submitted to the registrar or on the date the applicant becomes 18 years of age, whichever is later. (e) "If the 30th day before the date of an election is a Satruday, Sunday, or legal state or national holiday, an application is considered to be timely if it is submitted to the registrar on or before the next regular business day." 11/16/2018 Texas Secretary of State Texas Secretary of State Elections Division

Registering in a specific county Section 13.001 (Eligibility for Registration) 18 years + U.S. Citizen No final judgment of totally nor partially mentally incapacitated without the right to vote Not a felon, or if yes-be completely done with all aspects of sentence (be off-paper) Resident of the county where they submit application Must be at least 17 yrs. 10 mos. when applying – satisfy all above (except for age) 11/16/2018 Texas Secretary of State

Registering to Vote at an Address deemed to be Business by the County Voter Registrar may not reject an application based on address being deemed business. If application is complete – Register the Voter. After registration – may initiate a Notice of Address Confirmation. 11/16/2018 Texas Secretary of State

Definition of “residence” Sect. 1.015. Rules on residence Residence means domicile; one’s home and fixed place of habitation to which one intends to return after any temporary absence. (c) A person does not lose the person’s residence by leaving the person’s home to go to another place for temporary purposes only. User can send Notice of Address Confirmation. User cannot send Notice of Examination based on residence. 11/16/2018 Texas Secretary of State

Texas Election Code Chapter 15 Sect. 15.051: Confirmation notice. (Notice of Address Confirmation) (a) If the registrar has reason to believe that a voter’s current residence is different from that indicated on the registration records, the registrar shall deliver to the voter a written confirmation notice requesting confirmation of the voter’s current residence. 11/16/2018 Texas Secretary of State

Notice of Address Confirmation Include the official Voter Registration Address Confirmation Response form with postage for each Notice to Confirm Voter Registration Address notice delivered to a voter. (Sec. 15.052 (b)) Make it deliverable by forwardable mail to the voter’s last known address. Maintain a list of confirmation notices mailed to the voters. List should include voter’s name and date the notice is mailed. VR shall maintain and retain that list for your records. 11/16/2018 Texas Secretary of State

Response to Notice of Address Confirmation Sect. 15.053 Texas Secretary of State Elections Division 11/16/2018 Response to Notice of Address Confirmation Sect. 15.053 Voter shall respond no later than 30 days after the date the confirmation notice was mailed Notice shall include a written, signed response to the notice confirming the voter’s current residence Voter Registrar retains the response form and files it along with voter’s registration record If Response Form comes back and the voter is now registered in another county. Forward to corresponding county within (2) business days Able to reject the application In some situations, counties will be required to send Notice of Rejection. More info on Slide 12. 11/16/2018 Texas Secretary of State Texas Secretary of State Elections Division

Texas Secretary of State Notice of Rejection Contiguous (neighboring counties) Not required to be sent Ex: Archer and Wichita Non- Contiguous (distant counties) Required to be sent Ex: El Paso and Bexar 11/16/2018 Texas Secretary of State

Failure to Confirm Address If after 30 days the voter has not responded: Voter will be remain on Suspense until address is confirmed Sect. 13.146 subsection(b) Statement of residence form (SOR) will be required at the time of voting in person Sect. 15.052 11/16/2018 Texas Secretary of State

Registering at a Business Address Texas Secretary of State Elections Division 11/16/2018 Registering at a Business Address Designate a specific address within an existing street range as a business address. The system will proceed with the registration and produce a Voter Registration Certificate. Notice of Address Confirmation is automatically generated. Notice is sent to the county’s Batch on the Dashboard for printing. The system will place the voter on suspense when the Notice is printed to be mailed. In the redeveloped system, a county will be able to designate a specific address within an existing street range as a business address. When a person is registered at the address, the system will proceed with the registration and produce a Voter Registration Certificate. The system will then also initiate a Notice of Address Confirmation and provide that in the Batch Printing on the county’s Dashboard. The system will place the voter on suspense when the Notice is printed to be mailed. 11/16/2018 Texas Secretary of State Texas Secretary of State Elections Division

Live Check: Verifying Eligibility For those records that fail the DPS live check verification, a TDL Mismatch file will be provided to the county. Each file includes both the voter’s record and the corresponding information from the DPS, driver/ID file. This information can then be used to identify which field submitted on the voter application did not match to the DPS data resulting in a verification failure.  The three fields used to match against DPS to confirm verification are:   TDL/ID Number Last/Former Name Date of Birth 11/16/2018 Texas Secretary of State

Live Check: Verifying Eligibility SSN VERIFICATION If the individual provides a Social Security Number, then the information is verified by comparing Name, Date of Birth and SSN to the information maintained by the Social Security Administration. This information is sent out through a web service and as such does not produce a rejection record for the voter registrar to compare results against. 11/16/2018 Texas Secretary of State

Live Check: Verifying Eligibility Texas Secretary of State Elections Division 11/16/2018 Live Check: Verifying Eligibility DECEASED CHECK If the individual strong matches against deceased information provided by entities reporting deceased information under 16.001, then the county will receive notification of the failure. Online counties get a Notice of Challenge posted to their Dashboard. Offline counties receive the information as an Event Type 7 Strong Deceased Criteria  - Last Name, SSN (9 digit) and DOB   Bypass Check tells the system to insert the voter without making the voter go through LiveCheck.  As a reminder LiveCheck is a multi-step process that virtually every voter must go through when a new application is submitted.  Keep in mind that the purpose of LiveCheck is merely to confirm that the information provided matches a person who is in fact living.  Whether the person is eligible to vote based on other eligibility requirements is not addressed through this process.  The various checks that a new application goes through in a county are: Duplicate check – the voter record is compared to the statewide database to determine whether or not a strong match duplicate can be identified.  If a strong match duplicate is found, the voter record in the old county (with the older EDR date) is cancelled and the voter is “moved” to be an active voter in the new county of registration.  If the application strong matches a registered voter in the same county, the record will be updated. Deceased check – the voter record is compared to the deceased table (comprised of records from the Bureau of Vital Statistics and the Social Security Administration Death Master File) in an effort to confirm the status of the voter.  If the record strong matches a record listed in the deceased table, then the application is rejected. Identification check – The voter from DPS bypasses the ID verification check since the record originated from DPS, but it is checked against deceased live check and undergoes the duplicate verification process. If the voter provides a DL number, then the voter record is compared to the Driver License Table.  This process compares the TDL, Last Name or Former Name, and Date of Birth of the voter application to the TDL table.  If the last four of the SSN are provided, then the record goes through a portal to the Social Security Administration to attempt to verify the person based on Last Name or Former Name, Date of Birth and the Last four of the SSN.   A voter providing neither the SSN nor the TDL will fail live check and be required to show identification when voting. 11/16/2018 Texas Secretary of State Texas Secretary of State Elections Division

Live Check: Verifying Eligibility Texas Secretary of State Elections Division 11/16/2018 Live Check: Verifying Eligibility If there is a data entry error, no Notice of Incomplete need be sent. Simply. Correct the error and submit again. If there is not a data entry error, send a Notice of Incomplete marking the exact reason for non-verification. Response received within 10 days with new information – enter said information and re-submit with original reg. date. Response after 10 days with new information – must change the registration date and submit as new application. Response within 10 days, but with no new information – process the application as an ID required voter. If there is no response after 10 days, you may reject the application on the grounds of incompleteness. Send a Notice of Rejection in these cases. E-Net is user driven NOT system driven. The user will determine that the applicant is your person. 11/16/2018 Texas Secretary of State Texas Secretary of State Elections Division

Notice of Incomplete w/o New Information In accordance with HAVA, a voter who has not been issued a driver’s license nor submitted proof of identification when they present themselves for voting (or with ballot by mail) should be flagged on the official voter registration list with the annotation of “ID.” Poll workers should request a proper form of identification from these voters when they present themselves to vote. 11/16/2018 Texas Secretary of State

Texas Election Code Chapter 16 Sect. 16.033 (reasons for examining) Sect. 16.031 (ways to cancel voters) 11/16/2018 Texas Secretary of State

Reasons for Examining a Voter Sect. 16.033 Voter Registrar may investigate whether a registered voter is currently eligible for registration in the county, but does not authorize an investigation of eligibility based solely on residence. Deceased Non U.S. Citizen Possible Felon Age 11/16/2018 Texas Secretary of State

Reasons for Examining a Voter Sect. 16.033 Registrar shall retain a copy of the notice mailed to a voter with the voter’s application. If the voter replies; Writing; retain the reply on file with the application Verbal; prepare a memo with the substance and date of reply and file with the application If a voter is investigated for Citizenship, then the voter must provide proof of citizenship in order to remain registered. 11/16/2018 Texas Secretary of State

Cancellation Upon Notice of Ineligibility Sect. 16.031 The registrar shall cancel a voter’s registration upon receipt of: Voter’s response that their residence is Out of County Abstract of voter’s death certificate or abstract of application indicating the voter is deceased Abstract from the court indicating total mental incapacity, partial mental incapacity w/o the right to vote, or convicted of a felony Notification the voter voted a limited ballot in another county Notification by Secretary of State that the voter is deceased or has registered in another county 11/16/2018 Texas Secretary of State

Cancellation Upon Notice of Ineligibility (cont’d) Receives a written notice from a relative within the second degree attesting that the voter is deceased Parent/Child Grandparent/Grandchild Sibling Spouse The registrar has personal knowledge that the voter is deceased Obituaries 11/16/2018 Texas Secretary of State

Texas Secretary of State Catch Phrases Address results in Suspense Examination may result in Cancellation 11/16/2018 Texas Secretary of State

Texas Secretary of State The End Thank You!!! Muchas Gracias!!! 11/16/2018 Texas Secretary of State