Ursuline Academy Goes to the Polls

By: Madeline Butler ’24

     Exercising the right to vote is an incredibly important civic duty. For a first-time voter, especially one who just turned eighteen, registering may seem like an intimidating process. Thankfully, Ursuline Academy has Mr. Lancaster to help all students learn how they can register.

     “I have been a volunteer deputy registrar for Dallas County since 2018. Within Dallas County I can register someone in person and then hand carry their registration forms to the county office,” said Mr. Lancaster.

     His role as volunteer deputy registrar requires two hours of training and then a test. This lasts for two years before he must take another test. It is not uncommon to find him helping a senior fill out a green voter registration form, even if they are at a school dance like Snowball.

     “At first I started out slow, but now I have registered almost 400 students,” said Lancaster.

     To keep track of all the students he needs to register, Mr. Lancaster has an Excel spreadsheet full of all the necessary information about who is eligible to register and who has turned in their registration.

     Lancaster said, “I get a lot of my information from MyBackpack. For each person, I put down their name, ID number, birthday and the county they live in. I can register students to vote two months before their birthday.”

     He then highlights the names of the people that he needs to register that week in yellow. Those students then receive a teams chat letting them know that they need to find a time to fill out their registration form.

     For those in Dallas County, Mr. Lancaster can take the form directly to the county office, but for those in other counties, the form must be mailed, or the student can take it directly to their county office. To make the process easier and to make sure the registration form gets mailed, students who do not live in Dallas County place their envelopes in the outgoing mailbox in the front office.

     For those who live outside of Dallas County, the form can also be filled out online and then printed to be mailed. This can cause some confusion because even if you print out the form, it still must be printed out to be valid.

     Texas is one of the few states that does not allow online voter registration. It is also one of the hardest states to vote in because of other restrictions too.

     According to Texas Tribune, “Texas maintains an in-person voter registration deadline 30 days prior to Election Day, has reduced the number of polling stations in some parts of the state by more than 50% and has the most restrictive pre-registration law in the country.”

     Other states are not as restrictive and have online voter registration, automatic voter registration and allowing voters to register as late as Election Day.

     In Texas, to request an absentee ballot, you must be out of the county for the entire early voting period. Mr. Lancaster will be sending out instructions to all graduating students this year about how to request an absentee ballot.

     Regardless of any restrictions, it is still important to do everything possible to exercise your right to vote. The next election is a primary which is on March 5 and Mr. Lancaster will be sending a reminder to any seniors that have registered to vote to participate.

     Next year, Mr. Flickinger will be taking up the task of making sure that students register to vote. In addition to that role, he will also be tasked with teaching Ursuline students about one of their civic duties.