Over 6,500 non-citizens have been removed from Texas voter rolls since 2021 and of those nearly 2,000 have voted according to a recent statement from Governor Greg Abbott. This statement also included the numbers of convicted felons, deceased people, and other categories of voters totaling about 1.1 million that have also been removed. These numbers come as a result of a renewed effort toward accurate voter rolls since the Governor signed Senate Bill 1 into law in 2021.
This statement is a big step toward refuting the claims that laws seeking to remove non-citizens are unnecessary because there aren’t any non-citizens voting in our elections. In fact, Governor Abbott made it clear that the Secretary of State and county voter registrars have a legal obligation to “refer any potential illegal voting to the Attorney General’s Office and local authorities for investigation and prosecution” and that “iIllegal voting in Texas will never be tolerated.” Those nearly 2,000 non-citizens who have voting history will be investigated and face a second-degree felony.
While those are numbers that could potentially affect a tight race, the problem is actually much larger. Right now, voter registrars can only investigate and remove non-citizens who identify themselves at the DPS or when called to serve on a jury. Typically these are foreign nationals who have a Texas driver’s license or identification card and when they go to renew it, they are flagged if they are on the voter rolls, or they are called for jury duty and say they cannot serve because they aren’t citizens.
Due to a consent decree signed as the result of a lawsuit in 2019 voter registrars cannot investigate the citizenship status of anyone currently on the voter rolls unless they self identify in those two ways. In addition, the federal government continues to refuse to share their databases so the Texas Secretary of State and voter registrars can verify citizenship.
This is why we must pass legislation in Texas to require proof of citizenship prior to voter registration, but by the time we get to the next legislative session it will be too late for this crucial election in November. Our last chance to fix it before November is the Safeguard American Voter Eligibility Act (SAVE Act). Call Texas Senators Ted Cruz and John Cornyn, thank them for their support of this legislation, and ask them to stand strong and do whatever they can to get it through.