- Requiring voters to prove citizenship spurs concern that eligible Texans won’t be able to cast ballots.
The Bill would amend the Texas Election Code.
Subject Areas:
- Elections--Administration.
- Elections--Election Officers.
- Elections--Registration & Suffrage.
Democratic lawmakers and Texas voters spent nearly four hours at a legislative hearing Thursday demanding to know how a GOP-backed bill to require citizenship proof from voters would work, and warning that it could disenfranchise eligible Texans.
. . . House Bill 5337 goes further than the laws and proposals in some other states, in that it would apply retroactively to already-registered voters in Texas, not just new applicants. Texas has more than 18 million registered voters.
Officials with the Texas Secretary of State’s Office told lawmakers Thursday that they estimate around 500,000 currently registered voters who don’t have a driver’s license number or Social Security number in their voter registration record would have to provide proof of citizenship.
- HB 5337.
- SB 16.
The federal courts have blocked similar laws due to allegations these amount to voter suppression.
- Court blocks Arizona’s laws requiring proof of citizenship to vote for president.
See also:
- Texas lawmakers consider barring counties from mailing unsolicited voter registration forms.
- Verifying hand-counted ballots in Texas elections may be easier under GOP bill.
- Republican lawmakers revive effort to give attorney general more power to prosecute election crimes.
- Texas countywide voting bill would allow fewer polling sites.
- Some Texas lawmakers want to ban countywide voting on Election Day. Local officials are pushing back.
