High school students Sawyer Brockman, left, and Jack Skilling volunteer at a voter registration table for the presidential primary election at Windham High School in Windham, New Hampshire on Jan. 23, 2024. Texas high schools are required to help students register to vote.
Michael Dwyer/AP
An obscure state law requires Texas high schools to give eligible students an opportunity to register to vote.
But voting-rights groups say many schools don’t bother. New data from a national nonprofit advocacy group shows Texas and Bexar County lag behind much of the country in the percentage of 18-year-olds registered to vote.
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Research published Aug. 11 by The Civics Center, which trains students and educators to run nonpartisan high school voter registration drives, found only 29% of roughly 420,000 18-year-old Texans are registered to vote — down 13 percentage points from 2022 and below the national average of 42%.
“Texas is one of very few states that declined,” said Laura Brill, founder and CEO of the nonprofit that was created in 2018 and is based in Los Angeles.
It’s a timely issue, with an Oct. 5 registration deadline looming for the Nov. 3 midterm and local elections in Texas.
How does Bexar County compare?
The group published an online map of Texas showing voter-registration rates of 18-year-olds by county. While rural counties such as Pecos, Andrews and Lavaca had rates above 90%, only 35% of Bexar County residents who are 18 were registered as of May 5. Other urban counties also posted rates below the national average with Dallas County at 27%, Harris County at 38% and Travis and Tarrant counties at 39%.
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“Texas is one of the most difficult states in the country in which to register to vote,” leaving an onus on schools and local advocates to guide teens through the process, Brill said.
Aside from being one of seven states without online voter registration, Texas doesn’t let teens apply to vote until they’re 17 years and 10 months old. Teens in other states can pre-register at 16, then begin voting when they’re 18. Texas also doesn’t have automatic voter registration as other states do for teens applying for driver’s licenses. In another requirement that most other states don’t have, Texas mandates deputy voter registrars take a test through their county, Brill said.
Despite those administrative hurdles, some school systems, including the Alamo Heights, Boerne, Comal and Medina Valley independent school districts have 18-year-old registration rates above 70%, while others are below 30%, she said.
The Secretary of State’s Office provides instructions online for an aspiring voter to fill out a voter registration form to be printed and sent by mail. But Brill said many teens don’t have a printer and aren’t inclined to use the mail.
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What does Texas law require regarding high school voter registration?
Under a little-known 1983 law, high school principals or a designee must serve as deputy voter registrars, offering applications to students who are age-eligible. They can help students fill out the form, according to guidance from the Texas Secretary of State’s Office.
With the Oct. 5 registration deadline approaching, Youth Do Vote, a local nonpartisan advocacy group, is visiting 10 schools in seven districts over the next two weeks to make applications available. The group helped 2,700 students register from 28 high schools in 12 Bexar County districts in the 2025-26 school year.
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Heather Eichling, Youth Do Vote founder and director, estimates only 30% of high schools in Bexar County comply with the voter-registration law — legislation she described as an unenforced and unfunded mandate.
“Schools and districts have to have the will to implement high school voter registration. The law is on their side,” Eichling said. “Research has repeatedly shown that the younger a person is the first time they vote, the more likely they are to be a lifelong voter.”