As of yesterday afternoon, I am now an official Deputy Voter Registrar for 2004 in Harris County. You can do it, too – it’s as easy as dropping by the Harris County Tax Office and filling out a form. I now have a bunch of voter registration signup forms in my car and will start pestering people shortly. You are asked to either let the new voter mail in the form himself or herself, or deliver it to the Tax Office in person within five days. Voter reg cards take three to four weeks to be mailed out, so the deadline for getting registered is October 4. Your deputization is good through the end of the year.
The nice lady at the tax office said she’s been swamped with deputization requests and new voter reg cards. We’ll see if that translates to higher turnout this year. If you want to know more, or you live in Houston and want to register, let me know.
Go for it, Charles! I’ve been a deputy volunteer voter registrar for many years, but this year, I broke my foot one day before the state Dem convention, and I won’t be out walking the apartment complexes as I have in the past. So you’ll have to do my work for me this year! 🙂
In Harris County, there are many ways to become a volunteer registrar. If you belong to any sort of group (e.g., a political club) that holds regular meetings, and if there are more than a handful of people in it, you can call the voter registrar’s office and they’ll send someone to give the minimal required training and deputize all of you en masse. That’s how I got mine.
And while volunteer voter registrars must register all comers, regardless of party affiliation or lack thereof, political parties are very much permitted and indeed encouraged to send out teams of volunteers to register people. Local Democrats, call HCDP if you’re interested; they’ll connect you with the appropriate people.