LWVTX Blog

Last week, the Senate State Affairs Committee passed numerous elections bills out of committee, and several will be up for a vote on the Senate floor on April 11th. Please be sure to use our Action Alert center to send an email to your senators to oppose this legislation. 

SB 1070 would enable the state to withdraw from the Electronic Registration Information Center, also known as ERIC. ERIC is a 34-state, information sharing program that allows states to obtain accurate information on voters who have died or moved out of state. This bill adds new data requirements to be added to the crosscheck program, data which is currently not used in the ERIC program.

SB 1907 & SB 1950 increase the penalties for election workers by threatening jail time and even felony convictions for violating the election code.

SB 990 would eliminate countywide polling. Our counties have invested an extraordinary amount of time and resources to ensure that their Countywide Polling Place Program runs smoothly. Revoking their ability to use this program would cause great confusion amongst Texas voters and potentially disenfranchise thousands of eligible voters. 

On Thursday, the House Elections Committee will be holding another hearing. We will be circulating more Action Alerts for the bills being heard by this committee later this week, so please be on the lookout.