Dallas County ☒ Resolution

☐ Solicitation/Contract
BRIEFING / COURT ORDER ☐ Executive Session
Commissioners Court - Jan 19 2021 ☐ Addendum

Simplified Voting to Strengthen our Democracy

Briefing Date: Jan 19 2021

Funding Source:
Originating Department: County Judge
Prepared by: Shay Cathey, Sr. Policy Advisor
Recommended by: Clay Jenkins, County Judge

MOTION:
On a motion made by TBD, and seconded by TBD, the following order will be voted on
by the Commissioners Court of Dallas County, State of Texas:

Be it resolved and ordered that the Dallas County Commissioners Court does hereby
call on the 87th Texas Legislature to pass an online voter registration bill as well as allow for
increased vote by mail options for all Texas voters to increase voter participation and
strengthen our democracy.

ATTACHMENTS:
Simplied Voting
 Resolution on Simplified Voting to Strengthen our Democracy

WHEREAS, On January 6, 2021, the United States Capitol was attacked by

insurrectionists whose sole mission was to stop the certification of the
electoral votes presented by the fifty states. The rioters who stormed the
Capitol were prodded by the current president of the United States who
pushed an unsubstantiated narrative that the results of the 2020
Presidential Election were wrong. The domestic attack on the Capitol
resulted in five deaths, numerous injuries, and an undetermined amount of
COVID-19 infections of congressional members and staffers who were
forced to take shelter in rooms or narrow spaces that did not allow for
appropriate social distancing; and,

WHEREAS, Elections are the bedrock of our representative democracy. While the
results of the 2020 elections were litigated in many states and the United
States Supreme Court. While there were no findings to question the
legitimacy of the outcome of the election, any perceived lack of trust in the
electoral process is detrimental to all future elections; and,

WHEREAS, Without a concerted, bipartisan effort to ensure elections where voting is

simple and less cumbersome, governments run the risk of elections being
controlled by the few to determine the destiny of the many. President and
Founding Father Thomas Jefferson hundreds of years ago said, "We do not
have government by the majority. We have government by the majority who
participate." That continues to be true in the 21st century as barriers remain
in place to keep the majority of Americans from easily exercising their right
to vote; and,

WHEREAS, Simplified voting procedures have been implemented in many states across
the country allowing for greater participation of their citizens. Dallas County
continues to best its highest number of registered voters in every General
Election; a trend that is likely to continue as more Americans choose to
engage in the democratic process. Still, the Texas legislature has not
approved online voter registration, which would allow counties to process
applications more quickly. The addition of universal vote by mail, another
measure not allowed in Texas, has been operational in some states for
years. Election safety and integrity in those states are rarely challenged;
and,

WHEREAS, A recent survey conducted by the University of Houston Hobby School for
Public Affairs found that 66 percent of participants supported online
registration as a voting reform. More than half of those in support of this
statewide initiative identified themselves as Democrats and forty percent as
Republicans. Likewise, the Brennan Justice Center has called for the
following national voting reforms to strengthen and protect our electorate:

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 1) Enact Automatic Voter Registration - Congress should pass the
Automatic Voter Registration Act, and states should continue to adopt
automatic voter registration. We should support bills that allow an easier
process to become a registered voter.
2) Restore the Voting Rights Act - Congress should restore the full
protections of the Voting Rights Act, and states should supplement those
protections. The Voting Rights Act was landmark legislation that finally
leveled access to the playing field for African Americans in this country who
had been denied a basic guaranteed right simply based on skin color. The
Voting Rights Act must be affirmed now to ensure the Jim Crow laws that
denied these rights to our fellow citizens never resurfaces in this nation.
3) Expand Early Voting - Congress should set minimum early voting
requirements in federal elections, and the states that don’t offer early voting
should adopt it. While Texas has fairly liberal early voting laws, the access
to early voting sites is not equal across counties. Texas must ensure that
early voting sites remains accessible in every county and give each county
local authority to expand (but not restrict) early voting as needed for their
constituents.
4) Prevent Long Lines at the Polls - Congress and the states should set and
enforce standards to ensure all polling places have sufficient voting
machines, poll workers, and other resources to avoid long lines. The
expansion of Vote by Mail would help to reduce unnecessary lines at polling
locations. Texas has a history of successfully implementing absentee voting
and could put the necessary protections in place to allow this an additional
option for voters.

These common sense reforms would go a long way to restoring faith in our
voting and increasing the ease in which our citizens vote; and,

WHEREAS, At its core, the horrific attack on the U.S. Capitol represented an attack on
our democracy – our elections. Simplified voting opportunities requires
courage and immediate action by elected officials so that long overdue
changes to how our votes are cast can be implemented by election
administrators for future elections. When Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., whose
92nd birthday was celebrated just four days ago, inspired the nation with the
“Give Us the Ballot” speech, he could not have foreseen 60 years later that
access to simplified voting would remain a hindrance to millions of citizens.
His words from 1957 foreshadow the position in which Americans now find
ourselves as we continue to protect our republic by unequivocally
reaffirming our commitment to democracy: “Give us the ballot, and we will
transform the salient misdeeds of bloodthirsty mobs into the calculated good
deeds of orderly citizens.”

NOW THERFORE BE IT RESOLVED that we the Dallas County Commissioners Court

does hereby call on the 87th Texas Legislature to pass an online voter registration bill as

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well as allow for increased vote by mail options for all Texas voters to increase voter
participation and strengthen our democracy.