Editor’s Note: This column was submitted to the Texan by a member of the UT community.

Government has a responsibility to its citizens to ensure their safety, provide necessary services, and protect their rights. As American citizens, we have a responsibility to obey the nation’s laws, pay taxes, serve on a jury when called, and vote. 

More than 200 bills have been filed in the Texas Legislature targeting voting and the election process. Many bills are designed to make voting harder, such as House Bill 2390 from Republican Rep. Carrie Isaac of Wimberley which would ban polling places on any state university or college campus. Bills like these corrupt the government’s role. Instead of protecting our rights as citizens, some state legislators are looking to make it difficult for students to vote and refuse to make voter registration more convenient.

Unfortunately, many of our elected federal and state government representatives stand on opposite edges of a Grand Canyon-sized chasm. This polarization has led some lawmakers to ignore all of us, especially when it comes to online voter registration. It should not be that way. 

Who should lead the charge for change? You. From campus student government to every individual student, you have the power to make change happen. I know. I am a proud graduate of the University of Texas at Austin and can attest to the power of the University’s students to make changes in state government. As a student, I lobbied the Texas Legislature to add a student to the UT Board of Regents. They did.  

Now, it is time for UT students, whether Republican, Democrat or Independent voters, to exercise their power at the state Capitol to demand online voter registration for every Texan. Online voter registration is a process issue, not a partisan one. UT Student Government should contact universities and colleges across Texas to join them in the effort to allow every eligible citizen the option of registering to vote online. 

Forty-two other states, including red states like Florida and Alabama and blue states like New York and California, embrace online voter registration. Not Texas. 

In 2002, when former Arizona Republican Secretary of State Jan Brewer made the state the first in the country to offer online voter registration, the 83-cent cost to process a paper application plummeted to 3 cents for an online one. Currently, it costs the Travis County Tax Office about $1 to process one paper voter registration application. 

Imagine the cost savings for Texas with its almost 18 million registered voters among the state’s 30 million residents. It took a federal court order in 2020 to force the state to allow online voter registration for Texans who use the internet to renew their state driver’s licenses or update their addresses. And still, allowing all age-eligible citizens online voter registration remains elusive.

Every eligible Texas citizen should be able to register to vote online. Members of UT’s award-winning TX Votes, part of the Annette Strauss Institute for Civic Life, registered thousands of students to vote. Think about how great and easy it could be if UT’s trained deputy voter registrars used tablets to register voters. Think about how many trees could be saved by giving up the millions of paper voter registration applications that Texans are required to use. 

At a time when some worry about voting fraud and reliable elections, online voter registration leads to a secure and more accurate voter registration roll.

My fellow UT students, this is your moment. This is your time to shine.

How easy it is to register in Texas and vote on the UT campus or any other campus in the state requires you to take the lead, pushing against state leaders who would like to silence your voice. You can testify at legislative committee meetings, meet or contact your local legislative representatives, and organize protests on the Capitol lawn. In other words, “Be loud. Be proud. Hook ‘Em.” 

Elfant, class of 1980, is the Travis County tax assessor-collector and voter registrar. He is a proud Lifetime member of the Texas Exes Alumni Association.