What does "Use It or Lose It" Mean?

It means Texans and voters across the country are removed from the voter records for not voting!

The process is part of Voter List Maintenance and is triggered by voters changing residence within Texas. The process happens in every state to keep voter records accurate under the guidance of federal law and state law.

Texas removed over 1 million voters between 2020-2022.

This is what happens:

• You move within Texas and forget to update your voter record with your new address and miss the notification letter from County Elections. Your voter status changes from Active status to Suspense status. If you do not vote for two federal elections you are then removed/cancelled/purged from the voter list. You go from an Active voter, to a Suspense Voter to a Cancelled voter. You have to reregister to vote. You will not receive a notice that they are no longer eligible to vote.
• Texans must check their voter status in advance of an election as you have to register 30 days before an election. In comparison, twenty states offer Election Day registration, which means voters can both register and vote on Election Day.
• As of March 2024, 2.1 million Texas voters are in suspense. The chart below has the information by county. Over 150,000 in Dallas County, 247,052 in Harris County, 161,563 in Travis County and 168,216 in Bexar County.
• Check your voter status to see if you are in suspense status and update your voter record! The deadine is October 7.

BUT, you can still vote in suspense status. If you moved within your county, you fill out a statement of residence form when you go to vote at any countwide voting location. If not countywide, then vote at your old precinct. If you moved out of county, you vote a lmited ballot during earily voting at a designated location.

Here's more information on voting in suspense status.

Update your voter address online by October 7.

In March 2024, Texas had 2.1 million voters in suspense. Below are the regions and 15 counties where voters are most impacted.

1.4 million Texans were in suspense in March 2024 in these counties.

Voting in November will remove your suspense status.

In April 2023,

the Texas Senate passed a bill (SB260) to add a supplemental process to "Use It or Lose It" practices.

In December 2024,

Senators Kolkhorst and Bettencort filed the same bill (now SB386) for the 2025 legislative session. The Supplemental process will be triggered because a Texan hasn't voted in 25 months. Texans will be put into Suspense for not voting.

We did research in the summer of 2024 on the impacts to voters from this proposed bill using public voter files from Collin, Dallas, Denton and Tarrant counties. The research shows close to 500,000 voters are at high risk of getting a notification letter from County Elections. And it could suppress the votes of millions of Texans. And one out of five voters in the four Texas counties are likely to be at risk to be targeted for suspension status under this election bill.

Dr. Andrea Barreiro ran a view of voter impacts from this proposed legislation using public Dallas County data after the November 2024 election. The analysis shows 29% of active status Dallas voters would definitely be at risk for notification as defined by this bill. Definitely at risk means they have not voted since before the general election in November 2022.

The 29% represents 377,089 active voters - just in Dallas County. In the analysis from the summer, Dallas County had 25% of active voters likely at risk. The effective date for the bill is September 1, 2025. We need Texans to vote next spring or in November 2025 if notifications are to go out on November 30 following a general election. This is not the current NVRA process where a voter can update an address online and move from suspense status to active status. A voter has to vote to not receive a notification.