Texas Secretary of State John Scott’s office sent an email to Texas voters on January 11 reminding them to make sure they are registered to vote ahead of the January 31 voter registration deadline for Primary Elections in Texas on March 1, 2022.
“Voters registered by January 31 can also participate in Early Voting, which begins on February 14 and ends February 25, 2022,” the alert states. “In Texas, voters register with their respective county voter registrars, which are housed within Elections Administrator offices or Tax Assessor-Collector offices, depending on the county.”
As Texans prepare to go to the polls next month, Scott encouraged everyone who is eligible to get registered and informed:
“Registering to vote in Texas is easy and straightforward, so long as you are a qualified voter, you can send in a voter registration application to your county’s voter registrar by January 31, and you’ll be eligible to vote in the upcoming Primary Election,” Scott said. “We want all eligible Texans to participate in all of this year’s upcoming elections, including the Primary Elections in which voters will choose the candidates to appear on the November 2022 General Election ballot. Don’t wait until the last minute – start the registration process today!”
To be eligible to vote in Texas, you must be:
- A U.S. citizen;
- A resident of the county where applying;
- You must be 17 years and ten months old on the date your voter registration application is submitted and 18 years old on Election Day.
- Not convicted of a felony (you may be eligible to vote after completing your sentence, probation, and parole);
- Not declared totally or partially mentally incapacitated without the right to vote by a court exercising probate jurisdiction.
Texas is an open primary state, which means that voters are not required to join a political party in order to vote. Instead, eligible Texas voters may vote in either party’s primary elections, but not both. Primary elections are held in each of Texas’ 254 counties by the Republican and Democratic parties. On Election Day, county party chairs oversee voting, while county election officials oversee the Early Voting period.
Texans can check their registration status on the Texas Secretary of State’s website before the January 31 deadline. My Voter Portal is a service provided by the Texas Secretary of State.
Are you registering to vote for the first time?
To register to vote in Texas, simply fill out and return a voter registration application to your county election office at least 30 days before the upcoming election date. To do this:
- Request a hard copy of the application. A postage-paid voter registration application will be mailed to the address provided by the Texas Secretary of State’s office; OR
- To complete the voter registration process, contact or visit your county’s voter registrar.
Register to vote when renewing your Driver License or State ID card
If you have an existing Texas driver’s license or state identification card that needs to be updated and you haven’t yet registered to vote, you can do both simultaneously. If you want to renew, replace, or change your contact information for either of these cards, follow these steps. You can do so online through the Texas Department of Public Safety (DPS).
Update your voter registration information online
You can now update all of your information on your voter registration record through our portal on Texas.gov, whether you’ve recently moved or changed your name.
To update your voter registration information online, go to this link.
To log in to the Texas.gov portal and update your voter registration, you’ll need your Voter Unique Identifier (VUID). You can look up your VUID by going to the Texas SOS My Voter Portal and entering your name, county, date of birth, and ZIP code to see your voter registration information.