While the Texas House continues its shenanigans, the Texas Senate has already appointed committees, and now Lieutenant Governor Dan Patrick has released the first 25 of his top 40 priorities for the 2025 Legislative Session. Coming in at number 16 is “Stopping Non-Citizens from Voting.”
As bills are filed in the Texas Legislature, lower bill numbers are held in reserve for the priority legislation. The lower number then indicates that these bills have the support of that chamber’s leader, Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick as the President of the Senate or Rep. Dustin Burrows as Speaker of the House, and are more likely to pass.
The number of priority bills in the Senate has grown over the years from 20 to 30 and now 40. Lt. Gov. Patrick’s first offering of 25 includes the subject of the bill that will hold each place, and soon the bills fulfilling each mandate will be filed. Senate Bill (SB) 16 is reserved for “Stopping Non-Citizens from Voting.” This is absolutely crucial since Texans know that while we do a better job than most, foreign nationals continue to be found on our voter rolls and voting.
Currently, federal and state laws require people to declare their citizenship to register to vote, but they do not require proof of citizenship. Voter registrars in Texas do not have the ability to verify citizenship and must take the person registering at their word.
To make matters worse, due to a consent decree made in 2019 to avoid a lawsuit, non-citizens can only be removed from the rolls if they self-identify when renewing a driver’s license at DPS or to avoid jury duty. Voter registrars will not be notified by the Secretary of State of suspected non-citizens on the voter rolls in any other circumstance.
If the federal government continues to block states from their citizenship records, Texas will just have to require proof of citizenship along with or prior to registration. That is problematic, however, since the National Voter Registration Act of 1993 and the ruling in Arizona v. Inter Tribal Council of Arizona, Inc. in 2013 make requiring registrants to show proof of citizenship illegal in federal elections.
As a last resort Texas may have to go the Arizona route. After Arizona lost that case in 2013 they went in a unique direction, splitting federal elections from state and local elections. Voters failing to provide proof of citizenship are restricted to vote in only federal races, since the federal law only pertains to federal elections. The state faces fewer restrictions on the conduct of its own elections. So far, Arizona’s tactic has held up in court. SB 106 by Sen Hall and HB 209 by Rep. Schofield would implement this strategy.
Whatever route Texas purses, it is a good sign that Lieutenant Governor Dan Patrick has made this issue a priority for this legislative session. Hopefully he will include another election integrity issue in his final list of priorities.