Commissioner Rodney Ellis, a Democrat, floated the idea this month of sending text messages to unregistered voters that would direct them to a registration application. He also suggested mailing the application to noncommercial addresses where voters aren't registered.

...In 2020, 10,000 people used the text program to register to vote, Caesar said.

Commissioners Court instructed the office of county administration to work with the tax assessor-collector's office to move forward with the plan.

However, state Sen. Paul Bettencourt and Commissioner Tom Ramsey, both Republicans, released statements on Monday criticizing the proposed outreach efforts, with Ramsey describing it as "another scheme to adversely affect voter outcome in the November election."