Lockhart announces for Travis County Clerk

Kurt Lockhart, who works for the nonprofit Raise Your Hand Texas and serves as a volunteer Travis County deputy voter registrar, has announced his candidacy for Travis County Clerk. In a press release, Lockhart said he plans to run in the March 1, 2022, Democratic primary. He said he wants to “use the office to resist voter suppression efforts and build the model for voter accessibility, awareness and education for the state of Texas and the nation.” Travis County Clerk Dana DeBeauvoir, who has served in her position since 1987, was last reelected in November 2018. She had no Republican opponent and bested the Libertarian candidate with 87 percent of the vote. The Austin Monitor asked Lockhart’s campaign manager, Brennan Lee, whether his candidate, a political novice, was running because he thought DeBeauvoir might not run next year. Lee said they were unaware of DeBeauvoir’s plans. In addition to increasing poll workers’ salaries, Lockhart advocates putting the job of voter registration into the clerk’s office. Travis County Tax Assessor-Collector and Voter Registrar Bruce Elfant has worked hard over the years to increase registration and said he would not support moving voter registration out of his office. “For the 2020 election we had a 97 percent registration rate of eligible citizens. Last year, Travis County had 5,000-6,000 deputy voter registrars,” he noted, adding that his office is currently working on a video to teach people how to sign up new voters. DeBeauvoir could not be reached for comment.