Close to half a dozen counties on the High Plains are taking steps to have compliant election websites. This comes after the ACLU of Texas notified them and 31 other counties in Texas of potential Voting Rights Act violations.
Out of the 36 counties, the ACLU of Texas notified on Monday, five of them are local:
- Dallam
- Deaf Smith
- Moore
- Ochiltree
- Parmer County
According to their website, the ACLU of Texas states the letters urge the counties to comply with a provision in the law requiring any information about voting or elections to be provided in English and Spanish in counties where more than 10,000 or more than 5% of all voting-age citizens are Spanish-speakers with low English proficiency.
We reached out to officials of all five counties:
“They named quite a few counties in the panhandle, but if you’ll go to those websites, click on the county clerk’s page everything that is available in English pertaining to the voting rights is available in Spanish as well,” said Dj Wagner, Deaf Smith County Judge.
Judge Wagner said the ACLU of Texas is wrong by putting them on the list.
We spoke with the legal consultant for the ACLU of Texas and he said they noticed some material on their website that’s not in Spanish.
The County Clerk for Dallam said they corrected their website last week, while Parmer and Moore counties said they’re working on making the changes on their website.
There’s no comment for Ochiltree at this moment, the county clerk was not available at the time of the call.
The legal consultant for the ACLU of Texas said with election day less than two months away, they want to make sure everyone is informed and websites are up to date.
