Governor Greg Abbott announced today that the state has successfully removed over one million ineligible voters from its voter rolls since the enactment of Senate Bill 1 in 2021.
This decisive action includes nearly 500,000 deceased individuals and thousands of noncitizens.
“Election integrity is essential to our democracy,” said Governor Abbott.
“I have signed the strongest election laws in the nation to protect the right to vote and to crackdown on illegal voting. These reforms have led to the removal of over one million ineligible people from our voter rolls in the last three years, including noncitizens, deceased voters, and people who moved to another state.
“The Secretary of State and county voter registrars have an ongoing legal requirement to review the voter rolls, remove ineligible voters, and refer any potential illegal voting to the Attorney General’s Office and local authorities for investigation and prosecution. Illegal voting in Texas will never be tolerated. We will continue to actively safeguard Texans’ sacred right to vote while also aggressively protecting our elections from illegal voting.”
The extensive review process conducted by the Secretary of State’s office and county voter registrars has yielded significant results, including:
- Over 6,500 noncitizens
- Over 6,000 voters with felony convictions
- Over 457,000 deceased individuals
- Over 463,000 voters on the suspense list
- Over 134,000 voters who confirmed they had moved
- Over 65,000 voters who failed to respond to examination notices
- Over 19,000 voters who requested cancellation of their registration
In total, these actions account for over 1.1 million ineligible voters being removed from Texas’ voter rolls.
According to the press release:
Of the over 6,500 noncitizens removed from the voter rolls, approximately 1,930 have a voter history. The Secretary of State’s office is in the process of sending all 1,930 records to the Attorney General’s Office for investigation and potential legal action. To better crackdown on illegal voting, Governor Abbott signed House Bill 1243 into law last year, increasing the penalty for illegal voting, including voting by noncitizens, to a second-degree felony.
In 2021, Governor Abbott signed Senate Bill 1, Senate Bill 1113, and House Bill 574 into law. Senate Bill 1 elevated lying while registering to vote to a state jail felony, criminalized ballot harvesting, required the Secretary of State to conduct randomized audits of elections every two years, banned distribution of unsolicited mail-in ballot applications and ballots, and required ID for mail-in ballots. Senate Bill 1113 empowered the Secretary of State to withhold funds from counties that fail to remove noncitizens from their voter roll. House Bill 574 made it a second-degree felony to knowingly count invalid votes or refuse to count valid votes.
In 2017, the Governor signed Senate Bill 5, which increased the penalty for election workers who knowingly permit noncitizens and other ineligible persons to vote.
