Tim Tai, Senior Photographer

Josh Danziger ’28 applied for a mail-in ballot in Harris County, Texas, three times before Election Day. All three times, his application was rejected for the same reason. 

On Tuesday, Danziger stood in line for two hours to register in Connecticut and cast his ballot. 

“It won’t have an impact,” he wrote to the News. 

The News has heard from nearly a dozen students from Texas whose applications for a mail-in ballot were denied or whose ballots failed to arrive in time. Nearly all the students described hearing similar stories from friends and fellow students from Texas. 

According to the Texas Secretary of State, voters seeking a mail-in ballot must submit a printed application received by their county registrar by the close of business 11 days before the election. Voters must provide a valid excuse, including prolonged absence from the county. Anyone assisting with the mail-in ballot must also sign the ballot and provide their information. 

Josh Siegel ’26 applied for but never received a mail-in ballot. He originally planned to fly to Texas for one day for the sole purpose of voting there. However, tired from travel the week before, Siegel decided that the trip did not make sense. 

On Election Day, he voted in Connecticut after his mother mentioned that Connecticut offers same-day registration.

Brenda Romero-Torres ’28 applied for a mail-in ballot from Bexar County about a week before the deadline, as did her twin sister Alinne Romero-Torres ’28. Neither received a ballot nor an explanation from county officials. Their older sister, a student in New York, also did not receive a Texas mail-in ballot.

Like Danziger, Brenda Romero-Torres waited for two and a half hours at City Hall yesterday to register in Connecticut and cast her ballot for Vice President Kamala Harris.

“There’s still things that affect the day-to-day life of Texans that I didn’t get to have a vote on,” Romero-Torres said. “So voting here in Connecticut, I’m not super happy about it, but I’m glad I could register the day of.”

Emma Cantu ’27 applied for a mail-in ballot from Hidalgo County five days before the deadline in late October, but she did not receive one. Cantu tried calling her county registrar, only to get their voicemail. She emailed the office and received a link to a ballot tracker which told her there was no record of her ballot or her application. 

Cantu’s friends had similar experiences trying to vote by mail in Texas, she said. One received their ballot so close to Election Day that they were forced to spend $30 for expedited shipping, Cantu shared.

Like Romero-Torres, Cantu ended up registering in Connecticut and voting for Harris in New Haven during early voting

“When I go home, I worry about my reproductive rights. I worry about just a general societal shift towards more racism and more bigotry. And so I really, really wanted to vote in Texas, and it was really frustrating when I couldn’t,” Cantu said. 

Bipul Soti ’27 also applied for a mail-in ballot in the first week of October. His application was approved, and the online ballot tracker said that his ballot was mailed in the second week of October. Soti, however, never received it. 

He called his county clerk four times. Twice, Soti was told to wait. The third time, he was told that it was strange his ballot had not yet arrived, but that he should continue to wait. Two days later, he was told it was simply too late. 

He checked at the Berkeley College Office multiple times and the adjacent Grace Hopper College to make sure his ballot was not misplaced. He said an employee at the Yale Post Office told him the ballot had likely been returned to sender because an employee had likely believed it was mistakenly addressed to a college office. 

Soti decided not to register in Connecticut after already fighting to register while living in Texas in the last election.

“I’m a big believer in voting in local elections, and I want to make sure my voice is heard in those small elections where the margins really matter, and the policy outcomes have direct and immediate impacts on my family,” he said. 

These students’ struggles with Texas mail-in voting were hardly anomalous, Alex Moore ’26, president of Yale Votes: A Student Initiative, said. 

“We saw a tremendous number of students from Texas who did not receive their absentee ballots, or who received their absentee ballots and when they mailed them back, they never arrived,” he told the News. 

The issue is widespread in Texas, with many successful applicants, especially students at out-of-state universities, not receiving their ballots before Election Day. In the March 2022 primary, at least 18,000 mail-in ballot ballots were rejected under a stringent new law requiring the rejection of ballots with minor errors. Last year, a federal court found that parts of the law violated the Civil Rights Act of 1964. 

Until 2013, Texas’ election laws were subject to preclearance by the U.S. Department of Justice,  under the 1965 Voting Rights Act. 

Ariela Lopez and Josie Reich contributed reporting.