Texas Governor Greg Abbott has announced that more than one million individuals have been removed from the state’s voter rolls following the enactment of Senate Bill 1 in 2021.
The purged names include deceased individuals, noncitizens, and residents who have relocated out of state.
This initiative is part of a broader effort by the state to maintain the integrity of its electoral process.
Half a million dead people and 6500 illegal aliens. If this is Texas, what’s going on in Democrat-led swing states like Michigan, Wisconsin, Pennsylvania, Arizona, and North Carolina? https://t.co/71omOCwqHa
— Miranda Devine (@mirandadevine) August 26, 2024
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Governor Abbott emphasized the importance of these actions in safeguarding democracy, stating, “Election integrity is essential to our democracy. I have signed the strongest election laws in the nation to protect the right to vote and to crackdown on illegal voting. These reforms have led to the removal of over one million ineligible people from our voter rolls in the last three years, including noncitizens, deceased voters, and people who moved to another state.”
Election integrity is essential to our democracy.
Texas’ strong election laws removed over 1 MILLION ineligible voters from our voter rolls.
We continue to safeguard Texans’ right to vote while also protecting our elections from illegal voting.
More: https://t.co/nJq9GrKHNF pic.twitter.com/tht9Ebo6eO
— Greg Abbott (@GregAbbott_TX) August 26, 2024
The law mandates that both the Secretary of State and county voter registrars continuously scrutinize voter rolls, eliminating ineligible voters and forwarding any suspicious cases to the Attorney General’s Office and local authorities for further investigation and potential prosecution.
Governor Abbott affirmed his administration’s commitment to this cause: “Illegal voting in Texas will never be tolerated. We will continue to actively safeguard Texans’ sacred right to vote while also aggressively protecting our elections from illegal voting.”
In a detailed breakdown of the removals, the state has expunged records of over 6,500 noncitizens, with approximately 1,930 of these individuals having a history of voting. These cases have been referred to the Attorney General’s Office for investigation and possible legal action.
Governor Abbott also signed additional legislation to tighten voting security further. House Bill 1243, enacted last year, increases the penalties for illegal voting, turning such acts—including those by noncitizens—into second-degree felonies.
Senate Bill 1 has introduced several significant changes to Texas election laws since 2021.
It has reclassified lying during voter registration to a state jail felony, criminalized ballot harvesting, mandated the Secretary of State to conduct randomized election audits biennially, prohibited the distribution of unsolicited mail-in ballot applications and ballots, and required voter identification for mail-in voting.
Additionally, Senate Bill 1113 authorizes the Secretary of State to withhold funds from counties that do not remove noncitizens from their voter rolls. House Bill 574, likewise, has made it a second-degree felony to either knowingly tally invalid votes or to disregard valid ones.
These legislative measures build upon previous efforts such as Senate Bill 5, signed in 2017, which heightened penalties for election workers who allow noncitizens or other ineligible individuals to vote. These series of laws reflect Texas’s ongoing commitment to secure and transparent electoral processes, aiming to fortify public trust in the integrity of its elections.
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