LWVTX Blog

We are entering the home stretch of the legislative session with just two weeks to go until sine die (adjournment). Here are the election bills that we will be following over the next two weeks that we need your help with. Please send your legislators an email using our Take Action! Center.

Secretary of State Takeover Bills:

Both SB 1933 and SB 1039 would allow the Secretary of State (SOS), which is an appointed position, to assume administrative control over a local county's election system without creating any sort of appeal or challenge process for the county. These bills would give the Secretary of State an enormous amount of unchecked power and could ultimately result in the partisan takeover of elections. Here are some more concerning details about these bills:

SB 1933: 

• This bill would give the SOS the power to "approv[e] and review … any policies or procedures regarding the administration of elections issued by the county”. This would give the SOS veto power over any change to elections made by a local county government, including the commissioners court. 
• This bill would also allow the SOS to intervene during the middle of an election and possibly disrupt the election. The bill would place a huge burden on local election officials who are trying to ensure their elections run smoothly.

SB 1039:

• This bill would allow partisan actors to file a request for explanation from county election offices about any alleged "irregularity". County officials would then be forced to explain the irregularity with documentation. If the explanation is not satisfactory to the person who filed the claim, the Secretary of State would be required to review the matter, which could result in an audit and even the appointment of a conservator to oversee the county's elections.
• Nothing in the current bill would prevent election officials from having to respond to frivolous allegations. This is concerning considering that we have recently seen groups from across the state flooding election offices with challenges to voter registrations and requesting access to voted ballots and other election data that is protected from disclosure under federal and state law. These requests drain county resources, and some counties have had to create a new position to manage the influx of open records requests.

Election Administration Bills:

SB 1070:

• This bill would allow the state to withdraw from the interstate voter registration crosscheck program known as ERIC. ERIC has allowed us to clean up our voter rolls and has resulted in over 900k matches being shared with local county officials. ERIC is one of the best ways to prevent and detect voter fraud, so it is troubling to see the state wanting to withdraw from the program.

SB 990:

• This bill would eliminate countywide polling on election day. It would potentially disenfranchise voters who show up to the wrong polling location on election day.

These bills would complicate our elections and ultimately make it harder to vote. Instead of passing these bills, we encourage legislators to ensure that county’s receive proper funding and resources that they need to run effective, efficient, accessible, and fair elections.