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This story was produced with support from the Pulitzer Center.
Last year, Hannah Murry remembers, she filled out every line of her paper voter registration.
She then gave it to a volunteer deputy registrar at a registration drive at Texas A&M University-Corpus Christi, where she’s a student.
“I thought that was handled, so I just went on with my life,” said Murry.
It wasn’t handled.
Murry, 21, found that out when she went to an early voting location in Nueces County last fall to cast her first ballot, in the constitutional amendment election.
She handed her ID to an election worker — who told her she wasn’t on the rolls.
At that point, it was too late to fix it. Poll workers let her update her registration on site for the next election, which she did. She left confused and frustrated.
“I went there ready to vote, ready to be engaged, and then I was not able to,” she said.