SAN ANTONIO — Valerie Reiffert has made it her mission to get San Antonians registered to vote and recently posted up outside Las Palmas Library on San Antonio’s West Side. Reiffert met a formally incarcerated man at the event and she explained the voting process. 

“And it’s not like credit. You don’t have to wait seven years. You don’t have to wait any amount of time. As soon as you are off papers, you are absolutely eligible to get registered to vote again,” Reiffert said. 

She does this through her nonprofit, The Radical Registrars. Reiffert didn’t just wake up one day and become a Texas volunteer deputy registrar. The murder of George Floyd affected her, so she got more involved in her community. She started registering voters in Travis Park in the summer of 2020.

“Literally where we came from. I literally remember being right here with voter registration cards on the back of signs that we were holding up,” Reiffert said. “We were breaking down boxes and using those as clipboards because we didn’t have any yet.” 

She’s gearing people up for the upcoming primary elections in March and the bond elections in May. She will pop up at vaccine sites, a protest, and even a drag show to talk to people about voting. 

“We are intentionally trying to get to young, BI-POC, LGBTQ+ folks or otherwise other marginalized people. People who look like us and that we can relate to,” Reiffert said.

She also encourages marginalized communities to vote in local elections, because she feels those are the elections that directly affect them.

“Laws are made to regulate young people, Black and brown people, to regulate women and LGBTQ+ people,” Reiffert said. 

Reiffert says when the focus shifts, change happens. Even though the deadline to register to vote in the March primary has passed, the Radical Registrars are still encouraging people to make their voices heard. 

“It is even more important for us to make sure we are showing up and voting. Making sure that people who are in office look like us and are reflecting our wants, needs and values as well,” Reiffert said.