County election departments across Texas are trying to reassure voters amid a flood of formal challenges questioning whether their registrations are valid. The challenges, filed by conservative groups and individual activists, seek to remove tens of thousands of voters from the rolls on the grounds that they don’t live in the county, are not citizens or have died. Election officials say the challenges are complicating the work they’re already doing to keep their voter rolls updated.
They want voters to know that they’re following state and federal laws that protect voters from being improperly removed from the rolls if someone questions their eligibility. Multiple election officials told Votebeat that the majority of the challenges they’ve received are against voters whose status their offices had already flagged through their daily voter list maintenance. In a few cases, the challenges start a process that could lead to careful removal of voters after the November election.
“Even though a challenge is filed, doesn’t mean that you will be automatically dropped,” said Trudy Hancock, the Brazos County elections administrator. “There is a process in place to protect the voter who’s been challenged.” At this point in the election cycle, voters aren’t at risk of being dropped from the rolls because of a challenge.
Under federal law, election officials can’t cancel a voter’s registration in the period 90 days ahead of Election Day, except for voters who vo.