Travis County residents can now use their phones to register to vote, with a new text-based system available to any eligible voter in the county.
Former State Senator Joe Christie spent the last two years helping to develop the tool, in part to encourage more millennials to get registered.
"Forty million of these young adults take no part in choosing their leaders. And I’m not just talking about President, Vice President, Congress — they take no part in choosing their local officials who decide what their children will learn, where they go to school, what kind of school it is," Christie says.
He says close to half of this largest generation in history are not registered to vote, and this text-based system should make it easier.
“Basically, what it is, when you don’t have a representative group electing your leaders, you end up with nutty leaders. And you end up living under nutty laws," Christie says.
Christie and his company are making the system available free of charge until election day in November 2016. To be clear, the text itself does not register you to vote. You'll have to fill out the form that comes to you in the mail — that's what the text message triggers. Travis County residents can text the word, “register” to 48683 or “I VOTE.”
