HOUSTON – A Harris County man fears new voting legal guidelines could forestall him from voting by absentee poll for the primary time in his lifetime.

Kenneth Thompson, 95, has been checking his mail each day in hopes his mail-in poll is among the many pile.

Thompson has been voting since he was 21-years-old, and he even remembers paying a $0.25 ballot tax within the 1950′s.

“I’ve been voting many, many years and I’ve never missed a vote,” Thompson stated.

Thompson considers voting an obligation. He served within the U.S. Army in WWII throughout the European Theater for the correct to vote and different freedoms.

Decades later, the vet fears Texas’ new election legislation, SB1, might forestall him from voting for the primary time in his life.

Per legislation, Thompson should both present a part of his social safety quantity or his driver’s license quantity that matches his registration document with the county or state.

“He registered to vote in the 1940′s and they didn’t require that,” stated Thompson’s daughter, Delinda Holland.

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Since Holland can’t meet the brand new requirement, his mail-in poll software was denied twice. The veteran stated Harris County election officers by no means notified him and he needed to name to search out out each instances.

“There’s gonna be a lot of people not gonna vote,” Thompson stated. “If I hadn’t have called in about mine, people wouldn’t have known.”

Thompson’s daughter, Holland, who has solely missed voting in a single bond election herself, stated she’s even tried contacting the county and state Secretary of State’s Office so as to add her dad’s license quantity to his registration file on-line. She stated she found there’s not really a option to have that carried out.

“We know it’s a new law, we’re happy to correct it,” Holland stated. “He’s a law-abiding citizen. He doesn’t want to miss voting, and yet, there’s no mechanism to add that driver’s license to your record.”

Holland stated she needed to re-register her dad final week to make sure he makes the Jan. 31, 2022 voter registration deadline. Thompson stated he hopes he’ll have a poll within the mail quickly, in any other case he plans to vote in particular person.

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“I can get out and move around and go to a regular polling place, but these people, lots of people just can’t,” Thompson stated.

He’s involved about different mail-in voters who may not obtain a poll within the mail for the March Primary Election resulting from potential points with their functions.