Texas law requires high schools to nudge students about registering to vote
Until Paul Saldaña commented at an event hosted by Austin’s KLRU-TV, we had no idea Texas law requires high schools to nudge eligible students — citizens 18 or about to turn 18 — to register to vote.
The deadline to register to vote in the March Texas primaries is Monday Feb. 1.
And, it looks to us like the 1983 Texas law brought up by Saldaña is unique in the nation.
At the January “civic summit” Saldaña, vice president of Austin’s school board, responded to a question about improving voter turnout among Latino residents by saying participation starts within each family but also involves the schools.
Saldaña touched off the Texas Truth-O-Meter when he said: “We actually have a state law that requires every public and private high school in the state of Texas to have an actual voter registrar” on “campus and part of their responsibility is to make sure that when children become 18 and become eligible to vote, that they vote.”
That shook out to a HALF TRUE in that the law doesn’t go that far.
See the fact check, with links to the law and relevant rules, here.
