Largely driven by Republicans’ intent to make elections more secure — and over the objections of Democrats who say voting should be made easier, not harder — Texas lawmakers have changed a number of voting laws over the past two decades.
Texas has 19 million registered voters ahead of the midterm elections, an increase of 2% since the March primary, when nearly one in four registered voters cast ballots. Turnout was 57% in the 2024 election, compared to 64% nationally, according to Ballotpedia.
Here’s where Texas’ voting laws stand ahead of early voting, which runs Oct. 19-30, and Election Day, Nov. 3:
Voter card
In 2011, then-Gov. Rick Perry signed into law a bill requiring Texans to present a government-issued photo ID before voting, but federal courts blocked its implementation, ruling that the Texas law disproportionately burdened voters of color, who are less likely to have one of the seven required forms of identification.
The Legislature added additional forms of ID in 2017. The changes took effect a year later when a federal appeals court overturned a district ruling that threw out the law, ruling that the broader ID policy was not enough to overcome the discriminatory intent of the original law.
Today, Texas voters must present one of seven forms of photo identification at a polling place:
- Texas Driver’s License issued by the Texas Department of Public Safety
- Texas Voter ID Certificate issued by DPS
- Texas Personal ID Card issued by DPS
- Texas Handgun License Issued by DPS
- US Military ID Card
- Certificate of American Citizenship
- American passport
Voters who do not have an approved ID can still vote on Election Day by presenting another form of identification — such as a utility bill, bank statement, paycheck or other government document with the voter’s name and address — and filing a reasonable impediment declaration, according to the Texas Secretary of State.
Reasonable barriers include lack of transportation, disability or illness, lack of a birth certificate or other documentation necessary to obtain acceptable photo identification, work schedule, family responsibilities, loss or theft of identification, and an acceptable form of photo identification requested but not received.
Voters who forget to bring a valid ID can vote provisionally, which requires the voter to go to their county’s voter registrar office within a week of Election Day for the ballot to be counted.
Texas is one of 36 states that require ID to vote and one of 24 states that require photo ID.
Voting by mail
In Texas, mail-in voting is limited to those who are:
- 65 years or older
- Ill or disabled which prevents you from voting in person
- She is expected to give birth within three weeks of Election Day
- Out of County During Early Voting Period and Election Day
- Confined to prison but otherwise eligible (not convicted of a crime)
In 2021, Republicans in the Texas Legislature passed a sweeping election integrity bill that included changes to mail-in voting. Voters must now include an identification number – such as a driver’s license number or partial Social Security number – on both absentee ballot applications and absentee ballots. This number must also match the identification provided on voter registration forms that might have been filled out years or decades earlier.
A year after the law took effect, more than 18,000 mail-in ballots for the March 2022 primary were rejected. Most were rejected because they failed to provide a matching driver’s license or Social Security number on voter registration forms.
“People were unfamiliar with the process,” said Daniel Griffith, senior policy director at the Secure Democracy Foundation, a voting security nonprofit. “It’s another administrative burden that some people will be caught in, so naturally we would see an increase in the number of applications and rejected ballots.”
Even though fewer mail-in ballots have been rejected years after the law took effect, he said they are still “higher than they were before the ID requirements took effect.”
In 2021, the state also made it a criminal offense for election officials to send unsolicited absentee ballot applications — voters must request an application to receive one. (The deadline to request an absentee ballot in the November midterm elections is October 23.)
For voters who want to hand-deliver their absentee ballots, the 2021 law prohibited counties from providing drop boxes before Election Day. Counties were also limited to a single drop box at the county elections office.
Direct voting
Texas voters no longer have the option of checking a box on the ballot to automatically vote for each candidate of the same political party.
Supporters of the law, which took effect in 2020, said the change would encourage voters to make informed choices about different races. Opponents said it appeared to target Democratic voters, who tend to use straight-ticket voting more often than Republicans.
One-click voting accounted for 64% of the total votes cast in Texas’ 10 largest counties in the 2016 general election. Six other states offer direct voting.
Voting assistance
Voters with disabilities or those unable to read or write may be assisted by a person of their choice provided that they are not affiliated with an employer or a union. Proof of disability is not required. Additionally, a voter may request assistance from one election worker during early voting or from two election workers on Election Day.
Under changes passed by the Legislature in 2021 and upheld by a federal appeals court in August, people who assist voters can only read a ballot aloud and mark it, and they are prohibited from influencing the voter’s decisions, incorrectly filling out their ballot or disclosing how they voted.
Curbside and drive-thru voting
Polling places must allow curbside voting for people with disabilities. Each polling place should have a sign with a button, an intercom or a telephone number to alert an election official to meet the voter and assist them.
Drive-thru voting and 24-hour polling places, proposed primarily in Harris County in response to the 2020 COVID-19 pandemic, were banned by the Legislature in 2021.
Countywide Polling Locations
Voters in the 103 counties participating in the Countywide Voting Program, created by state lawmakers in 2005, can vote at any polling location in their county during the early voting period and on Election Day. On Election Day, voters in the remaining 151 counties will be limited to polling places within their precincts.
Voters can find polling locations through the Texas Secretary of State portal, where they can also check their registration status and see which races will appear on their ballots.
Online voter registration
Texas is one of seven states without online voter registration. An eighth state, North Dakota, does not require registration.
In 2025, state lawmakers held their first hearing in a decade on legislation allowing Texans to register to vote online, but the bill died in the House.
“Online voter registration is a trend that Texas seems to have missed,” Griffith said. “It is notable that Texas is by far the most populous of the seven states that do not offer online voter registration.”
Most Texans must fill out a paper registration form and submit it to their county election officials. Online registration is available through the Department of Public Safety only when Texas driver’s license holders go online to renew their license or update their address. This option became available in 2021 after Texas voters and voting rights groups sued the state over its lack of online voter registration.
But that process was recently revealed to be flawed when it was discovered that as many as 500,000 voter registration records had not been transferred to county election officials, who scrambled to sort and process the records. The state Secretary of State’s office and the Texas Association of County Election Officials said Wednesday that to their knowledge, no counties are yet working through the backlog.
Disclosure: The Secure Democracy Foundation has financially supported the Texas Tribune for the past five years. The Texas Tribune is a nonpartisan, nonprofit news organization that is funded in part by donations from its members, foundations and corporate sponsors. Financial support plays no role in our journalism. Find a full list of them and more information about our financial and disclosure policies here.
