Elections

House Bill 4 (89(2), Hunter, et al. | SP: King) alters the districts for members of the U.S. House of Representatives from Texas to ensure that they accurately represent the will of Texas voters.

Senate Joint Resolution 37 (Birdwell | SP: Noble, et al.) would amend the Texas Constitution to clarify that non-citizens are prohibited from voting in Texas.

Senate Bill 12 (89(2), Hughes, et al. | SP: Shaheen) enhances election integrity by providing the attorney general with the authority to prosecute election crimes.

House Bill 5115 (Shaheen, et al. | SP: Hughes) strengthens election integrity by creating new criminal offenses related to the intentional miscounting of votes and increasing the penalties for current election-related criminal offenses.

House Bill 1661 (Vasut, et al. | SP: Bettencourt) creates a criminal offense for intentionally failing to supply or supplement ballots to a polling place. It also enhances penalties for intentionally failing to comply with state law relating to the distribution of election supplies and/or premature disclosure of election information before polls close.

House Bill 493 (Shaheen, et al. | SP: Hughes) prohibits individuals who have been convicted of a first- or second-degree felony offense from serving as a poll watcher.

Senate Bill 2216 (Hughes | SP: Pierson) requires political subdivisions to keep all equipment used in the operation of a voting system stored in a locked room. The bill also makes additions to statutory requirements for pre-election security procedures related to election integrity.

Senate Bill 2217 (Hughes | SP: Shaheen) protects election integrity by requiring standardized reports relating to electronic voter acceptance devices, provisional ballots, electronic pollbooks, and optical scanners. Additionally, the bill creates a requirement for the quantity of early votes to be compared to the number of voters daily, and provides a remedy in the case that there is a large discrepancy. Similarly, the bill requires that the total quantity of votes in an election be compared to the number of voters at each polling location, within 30 days of an election.

Senate Bill 506 (Bettencourt, et al. | SP: Paul, et al.) requires that the language for a ballot proposition be submitted to voters “with such definiteness, certainty, and facial neutrality that the voters are not misled.” The bill would permit a voter to submit the ballot language to the Secretary of State for review.

Senate Bill 510 (Bettencourt, et al. | SP: Shaheen) permits the Secretary of State to withhold allocated funding from a voter registrar if the registrar fails to perform their duties in a timely manner. The duties subject to the withholding of funds include the approval, change, or cancellation of a voter registration, the scheduling of hearings related to challenges of voter registration decisions, and the delivery of notices related to those challenges. This creates a financial incentive to ensure that voter registrars comply with voter registration laws.

House Bill 521 (Guillen | SP: Paxton) prohibits election officers from marking the ballots of the voters with disabilities that they are assisting. Additionally, the bill prohibits electioneering within twenty feet of a designated curbside voting parking space and requires voters seeking curbside accommodations to take an oath certifying that they are physically unable to enter a polling place without personal assistance or the likelihood of injuring their health. Additionally, the bill requires individuals who transport seven or more voters to voting locations during early voting and election day to provide identifying information and to specify under which provision of current law they are providing transportation services.

House Bill 677 (DeAyala, et al. | SP: Bettencourt) promotes the impartiality of election administrators by prohibiting them from holding an office or being appointed to a position by an elected official. Previously, election administrators were only prohibited from holding or being a candidate for a public office or an office of a political party.

Senate Bill 1470 (Hughes | SP: Shaheen) improves the accuracy of the state’s voter rolls by authorizing the secretary of state to use driver’s license and personal identification card data to keep track of voter registration accuracy.

Senate Bill 1862 (Hughes | SP: Hickland) enhances election integrity by ensuring that voter registrations from voters who moved to Texas from another state are accurate. It also requires notification to the voter’s former jurisdiction that the voter is no longer eligible to vote in that jurisdiction.

Senate Bill 2166 (Parker | SP: Shaheen) improves the testing procedures meant to maintain the integrity of voting machines by implementing testing timelines, additional verification measures, and new public testing procedures. These improvements will help prevent tampering with voting systems.

Senate Bill 827 (Parker | SP: DeAyala) improves the law relating to election ballot audits. The law currently requires the general custodian of elections to conduct a manual count of the ballots at the greater of at least one percent of the election precincts or three precincts, but the bill strengthens those requirements to include the greater of at least one percent of the early voting locations or three voting locations. This addition is necessary to ensure election integrity as more voters opt to utilize early voting. In addition, SB 827 directs the general custodian of elections to conduct additional manual counts and audits under certain circumstances, further improving election integrity.