When I moved to Austin, Texas, over 20 years ago, one of the first things I did was register to vote. At the time I was married, soon to be divorced, and the name on my voter card was "First Name, Maiden Name, Married Name."
After the divorce, my name was legally changed back to "First Name, Maiden Name," and I took steps to change the name everywhere -- Social Security card, driver's license, bank accounts, work, voter registration, etc. (That's a heck of a lot of work, btw. When I remarried a few years later, I kept my name!)
This November, before I voted, I double checked my voter registration card against my driver's license, and both matched exactly: "First Name, Middle Name, Last Name," and I had no problems at the polls.
So, at least for me there were no problems, or was there something looming over the orange squiggly below?
Today our new Texas voter registration cards came in the mail, and in checking out my name I noticed that it said, "Last Name, First Name, Middle Name, Name of ex-husband I'd practically forgotten about after all these years!"
My first reaction was panic -- I'm not going to be able to vote?! I'm going to have to initial twice?! I'm going to be forced to complete a provisional ballot?!
Then I noticed in my FaceBook feed that other Texas women had the same problem. Old names from decades past were popping up left and right. I checked out the page of our local paper, and there seemed to be a lot of confusion. Wading through a number of posts, I found some helpful information on the Austin Area League of Women Voter's website. If you are in Texas, you should be able to fix this fairly easily by contacting your county's voter registrar. Below is the information for Travis County, but if you need help finding the info for your TX county, let me know, and I'll try to help you in the comments.
http://lwvaustin.org/
NEW VOTER REGISTRATION CERTIFICATES 12/12/2013
Most Travis County voters have now received their new (orange) voter registration cards. This card now includes the voter's FORMER name (if the voter included it when s/he registered to vote) in addition to their CURRENT name. This change was mandated by the photo ID law passed by the State Legislature in 2011. (emphasis mine) If you do not wish to have your former name on your voter card, there are three ways to change it:
1. Complete a name change online at https://txapps.texas.gov/... .
2. Make the change on the back of your orange certificate and return it to Travis County Voter Registrar, P.O. Box 149327, Austin, TX 78714-9327.
3. Submit a corrected voter registration application with the "change" box selected in person at any tax office location or by mail at Travis County Voter Registrar, P.O. Box 149327, Austin, TX 78714-9327.
For assistance by phone, contact the Voter Registrar at (512) 854-9473
Well, my voter registration problem appears to be not quite the problem I thought it was, although we shall see at the next election. What bothers me most, though, is not my inconvenience, but the serious problems that many of my fellow citizens will have voting as more states adopt these voter ID laws.
And there certainly are a lot of confused, pissed off Texas women out there tonight!