By Tri-County Voter Promoters
TRI-COUNTY — The non-partisan Tri-County Voter Promoters voter registration schedule resumed on August 26, 2024, and continues through October 7, 2024, the last day to register for the November 5 General Election. We are actively recruiting volunteers to help with voter registration. Typically, we register voters in front of post offices, grocery stores and other businesses, and food banks in Jeff Davis (Fort Davis, Valentine), Brewster (Alpine, Marathon, Study Butte, Terlingua), and Presidio (Marfa, Presidio) counties.
Our primary targets include young persons just becoming eligible to vote, new Texas residents, persons with a change of address (from one county to another or within a single county), persons with a name change, and persons who may have had their registration lapse.
To register voters, you must become a VDR (volunteer deputy registrar). You can assist a VDR or hand out registration forms without becoming a VDR, but the VDR training is easy, informative and well worth the effort. It can be very rewarding to help people register to vote and participate in the democratic process, and to answer any questions they may have about the voting process.
You can get voter registration training in your county of residence (through the Presidio County Tax Assessor Offices in Marfa and Presidio, the Jeff Davis County Tax Assessor Office in Fort Davis, or the Brewster County Election Administrator Office in Alpine). Typically, you will be given a “Texas Volunteer Deputy Registrar Guide” and a sample “Volunteer Deputy Registrar Examination” to study. If you study the sample list of questions and then take the brief exam, you should be able to pass with flying colors. At that point, you will be given a VDR certificate, voter registration forms and other items.
You can use your VDR certificate from your county of residence (e.g., Jeff Davis) to obtain VDR certificates from other counties (e.g., Brewster and Presidio) without taking a test just show your VDR certificate to the other tax assessor or election administrator offices to obtain a VDR certificate for the other counties. Many tri-county voter promoters are certified to register voters in all three counties.
Another method of obtaining a VDR certificate is to sign up for online Zoom training, which takes about an hour of your time. In recent years, many of our voter promoters have participated in Zoom training offered by the Travis County Tax Assessors Office. They have training sessions available on: Friday September 13, Tuesday September 17, Saturday September 21, and Tuesday October 1. The training sessions can be accessed here: https://campsite.bio/tcvdr.
“The Texas Volunteer Deputy Registrar Guide” can be found at https://www.sos.texas.gov/elections/pamphlets/deputy.shtml.
For more information on the Tri-County Voter Promoters and how to help, please contact Roy Morey at (432) 426-0122, or email him at remorey@bigbend.net
Voter registration events:
Alpine
Morgan University Center, Sul Ross, E Sul Ross Ave, Alpine, TX 79834
11 a.m. – 1 p.m.: Wednesday, Sept 11; Tuesday, Sept 17; Wednesday, Sept 25
Farmer’s Market, 301 E Avenue A, Alpine, TX 79830
9 a.m. – 12 noon: Saturday, Sept 14; Saturday, Sept 21; Saturday, Sept 28
Marfa
Marfa Post Office, 100 Highland St, Marfa, TX 79843
11 a.m. – 2 p.m.: Tuesday, Sept 10; Tuesday, Sept 24
Terlingua
Terlingua Post Office, 53600 TX-118, Terlingua, TX 79852
11 a.m. – 2 p.m.: Friday, Sept 13; Friday, Sept 20; Friday, Sept 27
Jeff Davis County
Davis Mountains Resort, By Mobile Comunidad at Community Center
2:30 p.m. – 4 p.m.: Friday, Sept 13; Friday, Sept 27
Fort Davis Post Office, 500 Sgt Gonzales, Fort Davis, TX 79734
10 a.m. – 2 p.m.: Monday, Sept 30
The General Election takes place on November 5. More voter registration events will be scheduled between now and October 7, the last day to register to vote for the General Election. The mail ballot application deadline is October 25. Early voting begins October 21 and ends November 1.