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Brazoria County's chapter of the League of Women Voters celebrated Constitution Day on Sept. 17.

As part of the celebration the organization registered voters on the Alvin Community College campus and distributed pocket U.S. Constitutions.

The Constitution Day celebra-tion was one of the many voter registration events the LWV has scheduled in the run-up to this year's presidential election.

As well as facilitating voter registration, leagues will be en-couraging citizens to plan to vote safely for the Nov. 3 Gen-eral Election.

This includes applying to vote by mail if they qualify, taking advantage of early voting, Oct.

13 - 30, and voting during non peak hours on Nov. 3rd.

The LWV is a nonpartisan or-ganization and does not support or oppose any political party or candidate for elected office.

"We want to make it easy for citizens in Texas to be in-formed and active participants in our government." said Grace Chimene, president of the League of Women Voters of Texas.

The organization's VOTE-411.org website has information about voter registration and vot-er ID's required in Texas.

The website also continues the leagues tradition of providing nonpartisan information about state and local candidates that will be on the ballot.

The League of Women Voters held a voter registration event at Alvin Community College on Sept. 17. (Photo Courtesy ACC)

Brazoria County League of Women Voters holds voter registration day

October marks the beginning of Texas Archeology Month, a month-long celebration of Tex-as' archeological heritage.

Sponsored by the Texas His-torical Commission, Texas Ar-cheology Month features events to heighten awareness and ap-preciation of Texas' heritage in communities across the state.

In recognition of Texas Ar-cheology Month, the Brazoria County Historical Museum will kick-off its virtual Archeologi-cal Lecture Series Oct. 1 at 6:30

p.m. with Chris Kneupper.Kneupper will present

“Chronological and Archaeo-logical History of the Forts Velasco. "

The lecture will provide an overview of the forts built at the mouth of the Brazos River, in what is known today as Surfside Beach.

The presentation explores the history of the forts from 1832, when it was originally built by Mexican soldiers, to later forts built during the Texas Revolu-

tion and Civil War. On Oct. 22 at 6:30 p.m. Wil-

son W. “Dub” Crook, III will virtually present “Liberty Coun-ty: A Major Trade Entry Point for Southeast Texas.”

Crook will discuss prehistoric life in Southeast Texas — spe-cifically in the Late Archaic Pe-riod, around 1,000 B.C.E., and the Woodland Period, which ranges from 1,000 B.C.E. to 1100 C.E.

Crook will discuss some of the exotic trade items that have

been found in Southeast Texas and provide insight into where they may have originated.

He will also address the mis-conception that ancient Texans were isolated from the major ac-tivity in the Mississippi Valley.

To participate in these free virtual programs pre-registra-tion is required. To register visit our webpage www.bchm.org.

For more information follow the Brazoria County Historical Museum on Facebook or call 979-864-1208.

Brazoria County Historical Museum observes Texas Archeology Month

By Dan Rosenzweig-ZiffTexas Tribune

Acting on a federal judge’s orders, Texas has updated its online driver's license renewal systems to allow people to add their names to the voter rolls when they update their licenses. The changes was the culmina-tion of a six-year legal battle, which included two lawsuits aimed at getting Texans the right to register to vote online while updating their licenses.

The judge's decision was handed down on Sept. 16. While it’s a limited step — the online option is still only available to people updating their licenses — the change marks the first time Texans have been able to register to vote online, which advocates say could significant-ly increase turnout both this year and for future elections.

The ruling brings Texas into compliance with the National Voter Registration Act, known as the motor voter law.

The law requires states to let residents complete their voter registration applications when they apply for or renew their driver’s licenses.

However, for decades Texas has limited voter registration to physical DPS/DMV locations.

Previously, Texans who tried to register while using the state’s online license portal were

directed to a blank registration form they had to fill out, print and send to their county regis-trar.

The state was forced to change that system after U.S. District Judge Orlando Garcia ruled in August that hat DPS is “legally obligated” to allow voters to simultaneously register to vote with every license renewal or change-of-address application.

Garcia had ordered the state to set up a “fully operable” online system by Sept. 23.

Texas drivers can renew their licenses online if they renewed them in person the previous time, they are older than 18 but younger than 79, and their li-censes expire within two years or have been expired for less than two years, among other re-strictions. Texas has more than 16.6 million registered voters.

The coronavirus has brought widespread concern about how people can vote safely in Texas this November, especially as the state’s elected leaders have resisted the idea of broadening who is eligible to vote by mail.

Campaigns and advocates from both parties have found that registering new voters has been a challenge without online voting.

Forty-one states have passed legislation to allow residents to register to vote online; Texas is not one of them.

While some state leaders have staunchly opposed any form of online registration, Garcia’s rul-ing last month said online reg-istration would actually bolster security and election integrity.

“Uncontested expert testimo-ny shows that a compliant DPS system would very likely lead to great efficiency, less human er-ror, a massive saving in costs, and increased voter registra-tion,” Garcia wrote.

The decision might be able to help Texas' voter registration numbers recover from COV-ID-19.

In April alone, new registra-tions in Texas dropped 70 per-cent — from 143,199 to 34,694 — from April 2016, according to numbers from the nonprofit Center for Election Innovation and Research.

The effects are being felt by both parties. Democrats and Re-publicans have spoken about the struggles to register voters in the age of COVID-19.

On the Republican side, the super PAC Engage Texas is em-blematic of the challenge. By February, a month before the pandemic hit Texas, it had raised nearly $12 million and had hired nearly 300 staff members with the goal of registering hundreds of thousands of new likely Re-publican voters before the 2020 elections.

The political action commit-

tee had shut down by May, cit-ing challenges created by the coronavirus.

Democrats, meanwhile, have long contended that Texas isn’t a red state, but a nonvoting state — one they could flip if they registered and energized more voters.

Party leaders entered the 2020 cycle determined to register large amounts of young people and people of color who are op-posed to the Trump administra-tion.

Groups like Beto O’Rourke’s Powered by People were gear-ing up for a massive blitz, only to find they can’t go door to door.

Now many are hosting virtual phone banks with the hopes of registering hundreds of thou-sands of voters.

Many of the potential missed registrants are in the state’s growing Latinx population.

The Latinx communtiy has been disproportionately hit by the pandemic, and lower-income residents who don’t own printers and are therefore unable to print off voter registration forms.

The closure of driver’s license offices in April may have con-tributed to decreased voter reg-istration.

In past years, many new vot-ers signed up days before — or on — the registration deadline, which this year falls on Oct. 5.

Texas allowing online voter registration after six year long legal battle

The Texas Parks and Wildlife Department (TPWD) will be launching a new conservation license plate to raise money to help conserve monarch but-terflies and other native Texas, non-game, at-risk species.

The public is invited to vote for their favorite design for the new monarch butterfly license plate through an online survey that is open until Oct.3.

The public will be able to choose from three images of monarch butterflies to be fea-tured on the license plate.

Results from the survey will help the agency decide which of three colorful designs should be featured on the new specialty plate.

The license plate designs ap-peal to those who garden, enjoy wildlife watching or simply ap-preciate the beauty of monarch butterflies.

“The monarch butterfly is a species that is beautiful and iconic in that it is one of nature’s great migration stories,” said John Davis, TPWD’s Wildlife Diversity Program Director.

Davis added that Monarchs migrates through Texas from Mexico in the spring making its way to the northern extremes of the U.S. and into Canada, then reverses that feat in the fall to

overwinter in Mexico. "This great migratory story

is in jeopardy with the overwin-tering population experiencing precipitous declines in the last decade," he said.

"By adding the monarch to our family of plates, we hope to increase support for this beauti-ful migration event and through our conservation efforts, bright-en the future for this, and many other species.”

The TPWD Conservation Li-cense Plate Program has raised around $10 million in the last 20 years for wildlife and habitat conservation in Texas.

The 10 conservation plate de-signs include a horned lizard, largemouth bass, hummingbird, white-tailed deer, bluebonnet, desert bighorn sheep, and oth-ers.

These plates benefit Texas rivers, state parks, big game research and management and non-game wildlife species man-agement.

All TPWD conservation spe-cialty plates cost $30 a year, with $22 going to TPWD to support various programs and efforts. Plates can be purchased for vehicles, RVs/travel trailers, trailers and motorcycles.

“TPWD uses conservation li-cense plate funds to conduct re-

search and management activi-ties benefitting the state’s most at-risk species,” Davis added.

“The conservation license plate program creates license plates that people enjoy and want to buy while also knowing their plate fee goes to the wor-thy cause of helping wildlife and plants in Texas.”

Learn more about monarch butterflies and other native, non-game species on the TPWD website. For more information on TPWD’s conservation licens-es plates, visit www.conserva-tionplate.org.

For an additional $40 driver may order a personalized, con-servation plate of five spaces or less.

TxDMV will review each re-quest to ensure that it does not duplicate another plate already assigned or contain a statement or saying that is considered of-fensive.

Drivers interested in person-alizing a conservation plate for cars, trucks, vans or trailers can use up to five characters.

Personalized license plates for motorcycles can use up to four characters.

Characters include letters, numbers, and three symbols: the outline of Texas, a heart and a star.

TPWD looking for help designing new license plate