In a recent bid to overhaul election administration and voter access in Texas, a series of potential legislative measures were examined, and a select few were ultimately passed. Among these were laws designed to modify the structure of the 12-day early-voting period, enabling greater access for voters. New legislation was also introduced to decrease the number of occasions in which mail-voting applications and corresponding ballots are rejected. In addition, lawmakers established additional guidelines for curbside voting, despite refraining from adopting certain contentious proposals.
The challenging Senate Bill 16, a priority for Lt. Governor Dan Patrick, was among those left untouched. This proposal sought stringent documentation of citizenship from voters. Furthermore, a bill designed to increase the prosecutorial skill set of the state Attorney General, Ken Paxton, regarding election-related crimes also failed to pass. Several other bills, aiming to sanction online registration of voters, inspect hand-count results of votes, and allow firearms in voting venues all failed to move forward.
One pivotal bill that saw its initiation, evolution, and ultimate passage pertained to the expansion of early voting periods. This bill, initially intended to ban voting centers, drew significant pushback from counties invested in this model. Such a model allows voters to lodge their votes at any polling station within their respective counties, presenting an advantageous cost-effective and convenient solution.
Counties contended that voting centers not only saved millions in taxpayer dollars, but they also provided ease of voting. As a result of substantial alterations, the revised Senate Bill 2753 was passed and seen as a ‘compromise’. The legislation upheld the 12-day early voting interval, delayed the commencement of this period, and discarded the three-day brake between the end of early balloting and Election Day.
The alterations in the legislation ensure an additional weekend of access to early voting. Furthermore, it decrees nine hours of voting opportunity on Sundays rather than six, and includes provisions for voting on any public holidays falling within the early voting period. These changes; however, might delay the release of partial early ballot counts, typically made public shortly post the closure of Election Day voting.
Election administration personnel anticipate a postponement in the release of aggregate results due to the necessity of awaiting the completion of voting and reporting from all polling venues. Election officials also note that the legislation would likely necessitate hiring extra workers for extended hours, additional voting machinery, and possibly more polling stations. Unfortunately, all these adjustments would have to be covered by counties, given the lack of extra funding allocated by the state.
A directive in the bill instructs the Texas Secretary of State to liaise with counties concerning their readiness to implement these changes by August 2027, signalling a long term approach to these amendments. Following the 2021 overhaul of election law in Texas, the rejection of mail-ballot applications or ballots due to errors increased. Current legislature aims to refine this process.
The Senate Bill 2964 has been put in place to allow election officials to inform voters of errors in their mail-ballot applications or actual ballots via phone or email before these are processed. It also facilitates the rectification of these errors by voters in person or through mail. Additionally, a legislative measure compelling the presentation of vote-by-mail application instructions in a larger format to aid legibility for disabled and aged voters was passed.
House Bill 2259 insists that the application be readily available in a plethora of languages, mirroring the demographic diversity of the state. The strong bipartisan support given to both these legislations has ensured their implementation starting September.
Currently, voters incapacitated to the extent of physical inability to visit the polling place have the right to request an election worker to deliver a ballot to the entrance of the polling place, or to a car in a designated spot. All polling sites should cater to such curbside voting services. Some election workers have noted an increased usage of curbside voting in recent times.
However, with the new HB 511, anyone availing curbside voting has to sign an affidavit, punishable by perjury, acknowledging their inability to enter the polling place without aid or due to potential health hazards. As a precaution against misuse, election officials are mandated to query anyone who offers transport to a curbside voter about their involvement with multiple voters. Transport providers must sign a form stating their role, name, and address.
Non-compliance with these forms would be deemed a Class A misdemeanor, fetching a punishment of a $4,000 fine or a year in jail. Senate Bill 16 was one of the most extensive evidence-of-citizenship proposals presented in the country, setting its scope not only on new voter registration applicants but also on the existing 18.6 million registered voters.
Advocates for voting rights flagged that this bill could potentially discourage prospective voters and disenfranchise current ones by complicating the voting and registration process. However, both SB 16 and its partner bill in the House missed a crucial deadline and subsequently expired without a full House vote. An attempt to revamp the existing paper-based system of Texas by introducing online registration of voters was halted in its tracks.
House Bill 311, which was envisioned to make this fundamental change, failed to meet crucial deadlines and could not be progressed. Despite several Democrat lawmakers introducing similar bills in this legislative session, none were granted committee hearings. Furthermore, bills proposing to dissuade counties from sending out voter registration forms to those who did not request them, and to prohibit the sanctioning of state funds for these mailings by organizations fell by the wayside.
Senate Bill 511, introduced in response to two Democrat-controlled counties sending unsolicited voter registration forms to many residents, managed to pass the Senate, but fell short of House deadlines. Although a small fraction of these applications were returned, the unprecedented step elicited backlash. Several legislative measures pitching for concealed handguns to be permitted for poll workers or anyone in a polling location were stonewalled.
For those ballots that are electronically counted, Texas law necessitates partial recounts as a mechanism to validate the accuracy of the results. However, there is no such provision for ballots that are hand-counted. The existing law only prescribes a full manual recount for these situations, as was experienced when Republicans in Gillespie County exhaustively hand-counted thousands of ballots during the March 2024 primary, leading to multiple inaccuracies. Though the proposed House Bill 3113, which desired to simplify the verification process by mandating an electronic tally-friendly ballot design, was received well by poll managers and election officials across the state, it was left hanging in the Senate without any vote.
The post Texas Overhauls Election Administration: A Closer Look at the Legislative Measures appeared first on Real News Now.
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