Welcome to the Weekly Voter, your League's Monday Newsletter
Democracy runs on people like us, and every week you'll find ways to help: concrete actions, news worth knowing, and what our chapter is doing across five counties.
Thanks for being here. Let's get to work! | State Error Delayed Some Voter Registrations: Here's What to Do
A technical error between the Texas Department of Public Safety's (DPS) online driver license system and the state's voter registration system kept some voter registration applications from reaching county election offices. DPS has acknowledged the error and the state is now sending those records to the counties. With the registration deadline on Monday, October 5, we want to make sure no one falls through the cracks.
👉 Read the full article from LWV Texas to find out how you can help | Read the Texas Tribune's reporting on this issue | Check your registration |  | Bring Back Voter Dog! Early Voting Yard Sign Campaign
Longtime members may remember Voter Dog, our grinning "Time to Vote! Early Vote Now!" yard sign. We're bringing him back!
Put yours out Oct. 19, the first day of early voting, and take it down Oct. 30, the last day. Then store it until next election. The goal: make that goofy grin a friendly signal across our five counties that early voting is happening now.
Signs will be available at upcoming meetings and at the Oct. 2 Voters Guide work day. Can't make it? Contact Janis Richardson (361-772-3228).
Read why we're bringing the fun back to election season. 👉 Election Season Could Use Some Fun | | |  |
Voter Registration at Schulenburg High School
Tuesday, September 29 - Morning
👉 Contact Helen (512-497-1561) for more information.
Fayette County League Member Coffee
Wednesday, September 30, 10:30 am - Kathy Bailey's Home in La Grange. Members: find the address in the Member Directory on our website, or contact Helen or Janis.
👉 Questions? Contact Helen (512-497-1561) or Janis (361-772-3228).
Voters Guide Processing & Distribution
Friday, October 2, 10 am - Schulenburg Public Library (310 Simpson Street, Schulenburg)
Our Voters Guide for the November 3 election went to the printer today! We expect it back and ready to distribute to area newspapers, libraries, and community locations on October 1.
👉 Join us at the Schulenburg Public Library the next morning (Friday, 10/3) to fold, count, and bundle Voters Guides, then get them on their way to their destinations.
👉 Our Voters Guides (English and Spanish) are now live on our website! Check out the cool page-turning app we use to make them easy to read online. Local candidate info is now live on VOTE411.org and state-level info will go live on October 6.
League Book Group Meeting
Wednesday, October 21 - 11:30 am - Place TBA
Our next book is The Mercies by Kiran Millwood Hargrave
👉 Contact Jaci Elliott (713-823-1891) for more information
|  | Three things to do for democracy this week:
📣 Tell Congress to Oppose the SAVE Act. The Senate is only in session until Oct. 4, so supporters may try to schedule a vote before the October recess. The bill would require documentary proof of citizenship to register to vote and a strict photo ID to cast a ballot. LWVUS is asking members to remind their senators they oppose the SAVE Act now, before a vote is scheduled.
👉 Contact Your Senators Now - LWVUS Action Alert
🧰 Explore the Voters Toolbox on Our Website. Our website's Voters Toolbox is bigger than you might think: nine pages covering voter registration, voting in person, vote by mail, Voter ID requirements, your rights and protections at the polls, and more, plus our nonpartisan Voters Guide. Bookmark it, and share it with friends and neighbors looking for good, trustworthy information about the election and the voting process.
👉 LWV South Central TX Website: Look for the Voters Toolbox tab along the top of the home page and peruse the pages you'll find in that dropbox menu.
🎓 Help a College Student Get Election-Ready. Only about 23% of eligible college-age voters turned out in the last midterms. If you know a student, in college now or headed there, a quick text this week could make a real difference. 5 Calls has a simple tool built just for them, covering registration, mail ballots, and deadlines that vary by school and home state.
👉 Send the Tool - 5 Calls |  | Heads Up: Hallettsville City Council Weighing "Sanctuary City for the Unborn" Ordinance
At its Sept. 21 meeting, Hallettsville City Council discussed a proposed ordinance that would declare the city a "Sanctuary City for the Unborn," making abortion unlawful within city limits except to save the mother's life. The council said it will consult its attorneys before taking further action. The effort has been organized locally for more than a year, with vocal support at recent meetings, and is part of a statewide movement that has passed in dozens of Texas cities.
Hallettsville members, if you'd like the council to hear a different perspective before it acts, now is the time to attend a meeting or contact your council members. And, no matter where you live in our five counties, keep an eye on your own city's agenda, since this kind of ordinance could be proposed in your town next.
The League of Women Voters believes that public policy must affirm the right of privacy of the individual to make reproductive choices.
👉 About the Sanctuary Cities for the Unborn Movement | Hallettsville City Council Agendas |  | Sharing a few headlines worth your attention this week:
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All Five South Central League Counties Now Have Immigration Agreements With ICE. Under a state law that took effect Jan. 1, 2026, Texas sheriffs must enter a 287(g) agreement with ICE by Dec. 1, 2026, or face possible legal action from the attorney general. Colorado, DeWitt, Fayette, Gonzales, and Lavaca counties have all signed on. In November, Lavaca County commissioners added two deputies dedicated to the program, funded through federal reimbursement. 👉 Read more - Texas Immigration Law Council 287(g) map
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Abbott Orders Halt to New Data Center Permits Statewide. On Sept. 21, Gov. Abbott directed the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality to stop issuing new permits for data centers until ERCOT and the Texas Water Development Board finish their audits of power and water use. ERCOT expects to finish in December. It's the latest in a series of steps by Abbott to slow data center development, which has angered communities across Texas. Critics have urged him to call a special legislative session rather than wait until January. 👉 Read more - The Texas Tribune | Houston Public Media
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Rural Voters Showed Up in the 2026 Primaries. In Texas, rural counties led all geographic groups with 26% turnout in this year's primaries, part of a statewide record of 4.4 million primary voters, the most in decades. Rural turnout also rose in North Carolina and hit its highest midterm mark in over 20 years in Wisconsin. The piece frames rural voters as a group candidates can't afford to overlook heading into November. 👉 Read more - The Daily Yonder and our League's Voter Participation in South Central TX Fact Sheet
|  | Read: Building Better Neighbors — Best Practices for Responsible Data Center Development
As data centers reshape communities across Texas and the country, two groups from opposite ends of the political spectrum, Dream.Org and the conservative environmental group ConservAmerica, teamed up on a white paper examining what makes these projects work or fail locally. It covers six areas: energy, air quality, siting, community benefit, water, and transparency, with voluntary best practices for developers.
👉 Read the White Paper - Dream.org |  |  | Five Became One Hundred
In 2018, five women started our League in Lavaca County around a kitchen table - at a time when starting something new took real nerve. Pictured left to right: founding members Janis Richardson, Barbara Tieken, Cindy Meredith, Beverly Charles, and V'Anne Huser.
Today - in just eight years (with a pandemic in between) - we're 100 members strong across Colorado, DeWitt, Fayette, Gonzales, and Lavaca counties in rural South Central Texas, an area the size of Connecticut.
Thank you to everyone who saw the vision and helped us grow. Here's to many more years ahead! | League of Women Voters of South Central Texas
PO Box 78, Hallettsville, TX 77964
361.772.3228
lwvsouthcentraltx.org
lwvsouthcentraltx@gmail.com
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