Republican Legislation
There have been a string of legislative bills approved by Republicans in Texas that deal with making it harder to register to vote without proper identification.
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Senate Bill 1 signed in 2021 increased criminal penalties for fraudulent voting and limited voting options like drive-thru voting and overnight early voting hours.
Confidence in Elections
At the time the bill was signed, Abbott asserted that SB 1 was essential to ensuring that Texas residents would be confident in the results of elections.
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“One thing that all Texans can agree [on] and that is that we must have trust and confidence in our elections. The bill that I’m about to sign helps to achieve that goal,” Abbott said before signing the bill. “The law does, however, make it harder for fraudulent votes to be cast.”
Voter Roll Announcement
On August 26, Governor Abbott’s office commemorated the removal of over “1 million ineligible voters” in a statement where it also emphasized the findings of thousands of noncitizens on the rolls.
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“Governor Greg Abbott today announced that since signing Senate Bill 1 into law in 2021, Texas has removed over one million people from the state’s voter rolls, including people who moved out-of-state, are deceased, and are noncitizens. That removal process has been, and will continue to be, ongoing,” said the statement.
Noncitizen Voting
According to data released by the governor’s office, over 6,500 noncitizens were among the over 1 million removed, a fact that Abbott emphasized in an X post on the milestone.
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“Texas has removed over 1.1 million ineligible voters from our rolls. This includes more than 6,500 noncitizens. Almost 2,000 have cast votes. They’re being referred to Attorney General @KenPaxtonTX for prosecution. Texas won’t tolerate illegal voting,” Abbott wrote in an August 26 X post.
Hurting Our Democracy
In response to Abbott’s announcement and other actions by Texas Republicans, the Dallas Morning News Editorial Board published a piece calling voter fraud by noncitizens a “political fiction” and slamming GOP efforts as harmful to democracy.
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“Yes, voter rolls need to be checked and cleared regularly. But there is an inevitable lag that happens in the process. Creating alarm over the integrity of our electoral process is what is actually hurting our democracy,” wrote the board in an August 30 piece.
Hard to Vote
The board emphasized the already strict conditions which exist in Texas, which contributes to it being one of the hardest states to vote in.
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“Texas is considered one of the hardest states in which to register to vote, and DPS asks for citizenship evidence to allow you to mark “yes” in its license renewal forms; undocumented immigrants do not even qualify for a driver’s license. Political activists do lead voter registration rallies, but registration forms in Texas must be mailed and completed at least 30 days before an election,” said the Editorial Board.
Abbott’s Angle
In the piece, the Dallas Morning News Editorial Board also took issue with the focus on noncitizen voters, who represent a small percentage of the electorate.
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“If you look closer at his statement, you will learn that roughly 6,500 of those voters were considered noncitizens and about 1,300 apparently voted. That is 0.1% of the ineligible voters. In other words, it is statistically insignificant,” wrote the board.
Confirmation Bias
One of the main points of criticism from the Editorial Board was that Texas Republicans are feeding a harmful narrative that American elections are in danger of being stolen by emphasizing this angle.
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“But Paxton and leading Republicans such as Gov. Greg Abbott and Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick are bent on feeding the confirmation bias of a voter base that now believes American elections are stolen when their side loses,” the board wrote. “And the supposed thieves are, naturally, undocumented immigrants.”
Attorney General Inquiry
Ken Paxton, the attorney general for Texas, had expressed a need just days before the Abbott announcement to investigate organizations helping noncitizens with voting registration through an official inquiry.
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“Texans are deeply troubled by the possibility that organizations purporting to assist with voter registration are illegally registering noncitizens to vote in our elections,” Paxton said in an August 21 press release.
Bartiromo’s Claim
This new inquiry was prompted in part by new claims of possible illegal voting registration.
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One claim was brought forth by Fox News personality Maria Bartiromo in August, who claimed that undocumented migrants had been registering to vote outside a facility belonging to the Department of Public Safety in Weatherford, Texas.
Few Instances
However, Brady Gray, a GOP chairman in Parker County, documented how the claim “appears to be erroneous” in an X post.
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“Not only have there been no recent instances of ineligible individuals attempting to register in Parker County, there have only been two in the last 15 years,” Gray wrote.