Senate Bill 990 eliminates programs that allow voters to vote at any polling place on Election Day – even though it allows for countywide polling programs during early voting. This will increase wait times on Election Day and increase confusion about where folks can vote. It will impact larger (and more Democratic) counties most.
Senate Bill 220 creates election marshals that can intervene in local election administration. This would basically create an elections police force, like DeSantis has instituted in Florida.
Senate Bill 1750 eliminates the election administrator position – but only in counties with a population of 3.5 million or more. Harris County is the only county with that population, so this is clearly targeted at Harris County (Houston). It gives election administration authority to the county tax assessor-collector and county clerk.
Senate Bill 1938 gives the Secretary of State the authority to withhold funds from a registrar who “fails to perform duties related to challenges to voter registration eligibility.” These voter challenges have been used by partisan Republican groups to purge voters in large numbers.
Senate Bill 260 starts the process of de-registering a voter if they haven’t voted in the last 25 months. This makes it harder for otherwise eligible voters to vote, without any benefit to election integrity.
Senate Bill 1807 creates penalties for “officials who change any election procedure required by law without authorization.”
Senate Bill 1600 requires voters to prove citizenship when registering to vote – and would likely disenfranchise hundreds of thousands of eligible voters while creating additional hurdles to voting.
Senate Bill 2433 adds new reporting requirements for county administrators and subjects them to penalties – and, in the process, creates administrative hurdles to set election administrators up for failure (rather than seeking to improve processes).
These bills are awful, right? They passed the State Senate and they’re headed to the State House. They’re expected to pass there, too.
The sponsors of these bills weren’t challenged in 2022.
You can make sure we don’t make that same mistake in 2024.
