Young People Aren't Letting Texas's Restrictive Voting Laws Stop Them From Being Heard

By Lauren Rearick


Registering to vote can be tough, and the hurdles are just as big in Texas. Studies, data, and headlines routinely prove that Texas is among the top five most hard states for voter registration, which is due in part to the state’s choice to not let online voter registration, as well as a registration deadline that requires someone to register 28 days back to an election. And once it comes to showing up on election day, Texas residents have experienced difficulties including extended waiting at polls and continued closures of polling locations.


MOVE Texas, a youth-led nonprofit, nonpartisan agency, wants to change all of that, especially once it comes to youth voters.


According to Raven Douglas, deputy director for MOVE Texas as well as a recipient of the 2019 MTV Leaders for Change grant, the state’s strict voter registration laws and poor voting experience have had a direct impact on youth voter access. Key decisions are made in the ballot box, and MOVE Texas wants citizens to recognize the significance of turning out, and make the method of voting a lot easier for Texan residents. ”Young people, especially in Texas — they're black or brown, and engaging them and turning them out to vote may possibly impact the future of elections going forward,” Douglas said.


Changing the future political landscape for the youngest of Texas’s voters is just all in a day’s work for MOVE Texas. While in a recent phone interview, Douglas discussed to MTV News about the  group’s efforts to educate young voters through local voter registration possibilities, their work to develop leadership programs geared toward educating and training future civic leaders, and why the group’s newly-secured MTV’s Leaders for Change grant could help the sort accomplish its largest objective yet.


MTV News: to begin, how do you interpret the MOVE Texas mission?


Raven Douglas of MOVE Texas: MOVE is an acronym. It stands for mobilize, organize, vote, and empower. We are a grassroots nonpartisan, non-profit business that’s building power in underrepresented youth communities through civic education, leadership development, and distribute advocacy. We get people under the age of 35 registered to vote. We connect them to issues that are key to them, and then we show them how those issues can be impacted through voting and elections.


We often mention that Texas isn't a red state or a blue state, Texas is a nonvoting state. Whenever you look at campaigns, young people don’t have a propensity for voting, and we’re left out of the conversation. It’s really essential that we go out and register new voters and young voters, and ensure that they have a voice whenever it comes to not only federal politics, yet especially local politics.


We have a personnel of 18, and all us with the exception of our executive director, are under the age of 26. MOVE Texas shows that by empowering young people to do this work, we can run a company. I love the fact that at MOVE, everybody that I work with is young and incredibly diverse. We're ensuring that young people have a seat at the table.


MTV News: how come you feel that it's crucial for young Texan voters to be involved in voting not just for presidential candidates, however also local candidates?


Douglas: Texas has one of the highest rates of uninsured children and people; one quarter of Texans don't have insurance. In San Antonio, young people under the age of 35 have the highest rate of student cash advance debt. And as a state, we have immigration issues. Texas is one of the most tough states to get registered to vote and to turn out to vote in. It’s really crucial that we are working daily to change those systems. Whether it be healthcare, student cash advance debt, or immigration — a lot of those issues can be impacted by voting.


A lot of times, young people don’t visualize how the president’s decisions are affecting their everyday life, nevertheless whenever you look at hyperlocal issues, you could visualize how closely races can be impacted on a local level.


MTV News: What are a few of the things that you worked on in the past that you believe really made an impact? And what are you working on in the future, especially with the upcoming presidential election?


Douglas: MOVE Texas was once MOVE San Antonio. We went statewide about per year ago and we’re really excited to be able to see what our work statewide will look like. We've already seen in the 2018 election, as an example, in Austin where we do work, that people under the age of 35 voted more. And in the 2015 San Antonio municipal election for city council and mayor, millennial voter turnout increased by 300 percent. It showed that engaging young people and registering them to vote does work.


Any time we were the San Antonio base, we were involved in securing funding for police body cameras, we worked to get some Confederate monuments in the city removed, and we worked on our parade ordinance, which means it’s right now free to march in the streets and fight for whichever you want to.


We just launched our Democracy from the Ground Up Campaign. The reason for this campaign is to get more progressive access to voting, and whether that extends to voting on college campuses or voter registration, we’re working to bring state issues to a local level. We are working with county commissioners in Dallas, San Antonio, and Houston to pass aggressive voting rights. We’re ensuring that libraries have voter registration and that every college campus in those counties has a polling sites while in major elections. Ultimately, the big aim is passing automatic voter registration at the county level.


MTV News: how come you believe that young voters should be proactive in educating themselves on issues of political importance and in voting?


Douglas: MOVE Texas shows people how closely elections are won at the local level. Do you feel that tuition is also high at your school? That's a state provide, and it's really key to prepare ensure you're voting for your governor and your state representatives. We’re localizing the issues so that voters can visualize how their everyday lives can be impacted.


MTV News: How would securing this grant from MTV help MOVE Texas accomplish those objectives and its objectives for the future?


Douglas: The funds we would receive through Leaders for Change would help us register more voters. Last year, we registered 30,000 young people to vote, and 68 percent of these people turned out to vote. This year, we're planning to register 30,000 people, and then next year, our plan is to expand, grow massively, and register 70,000 people across the state. The funds that we acquired through Leaders of Change would help us register young people and continue to grow our infrastructure so we can reach more young people across Texas.


This interview has been edited and condensed for clarity.