Protect Our Elections

Protect our Elections

Priority:  Restore felony penalties and enact civil penalties for Election Code violations, which shall be enforceable by any Texas jurisdiction, including the Texas Attorney General. Require citizenship verification of each voter. Restrict the distribution of mail-in ballots to only disabled, military, and citizens that are out of state. Reduce the time allowed for early voting, and eliminate the three-day gap between early voting and election day. Establish closed primaries in Texas. As technology evolves, we encourage the passage of legislation that ensures the security of our elections. Sub-Committee Chair Devvie Duke

Report: HB 1234 (Rep. Hefner) passed, which returns the penalty for voter fraud to a felony, as did HB 5180 by Rep. Wilson, which provides for public inspection of ballots after 60 days of an election.  A major miss was addressing the issue of the Attorney General’s lack of authority to prosecute election crimes.  There were some good bills passed outside of the priority purview, such as SB 1070, which puts safeguards in place to protect individual personal information and specifies the duties that shall be executed for the Interstate Voter Registration Crosscheck Program.  We were also very disappointed that SB 990, calling for precinct only voting on election day, failed.