Travis County Tax Office

August 26, 2021

The Travis County Tax Office is offering eligible residents of several Central Texas counties a new way to become a Travis County Volunteer Deputy Registrar: Video training, https://www.screencast.com/t/bKTbPJeNACYd.

When the pandemic began in 2020, Tax Assessor-Collector and Voter Registrar Bruce Elfant continued offering monthly live VDR training sessions via zoom. With the new video, qualifying residents in Travis and nearby counties can become a VDR in Travis County more easily. Residents in these other counties--Bastrop, Blanco, Burnet, Caldwell, Hays, Lee, and Williamson—may also train via this video. The highlight of this training is the reciprocal understanding between Texas counties. By training in Travis County, the qualified residents of the other counties can now go their respective county to get certified for registering in that county once they pass our exam at the end of the video.

Texas requires one hour of training to qualify to register voters in the state. The training teaches all the laws and steps volunteers must follow to properly register voters.

The Texas Secretary of State also offers an online training, but users must print out the test and bring it to their county’s voter registration department to be appointed. Our video provides a link to the exam which the trainee will complete online and submit. It is a more seamless and paperless process. The volunteer will then receive a notification via email from the voter registration office.

“Ours is a true, contactless video training course that once completed and exam passed, certifies you as a Travis County Volunteer Deputy Registrar,” Elfant said. Those in the other counties who take the Travis County course and want to be certified in another or their home county will need to complete the online training and go in-person to visit their county’s voter registration department to become eligible to register voters in that county.

“We have a great working relationship with our neighboring counties, and we appreciate that they recognize our training to certify volunteer deputy registrars in their counties,” Elfant added.

In-person training is suspended due to the risk posed by COVID-19. However, even when in-person training can resume, Travis County will continue to offer its online training options.

To see if you qualify to train using the video, or to sign up for a zoom training, go to www.traviscountytax.org/voters.

Currently, Travis County has over 1,400 volunteer deputy registrars.

The last day to register to vote is Oct. 4 for the Nov. 2 election that will feature several Texas Constitutional Amendment changes.

View news release (PDF)

500 400 300 200 100 1 2 3 4 5 6 7