" Election experts cautious as Abbott touts voter roll purge " was first published by The Texas Tribune, a nonprofit, nonpartisan media organization that informs Texans — and engages with them — about public policy, politics, government and statewide issues. Sign up for The Brief , The Texas Tribune’s daily newsletter that keeps readers up to speed on the most essential Texas news. Texas Gov.
Greg Abbott announced on Monday that the state has removed roughly a million people from its voter rolls since he signed a legislative overhaul of election laws in 2021. “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,” he said.
However, election experts point out that both federal and state law already required voter roll maintenance, and the governor’s framing of this routine process as a protection against illegal voting could be used to undermine trust in elections. The National Voter Registration Act of 1993 already governs how states should keep their registration rolls accurate and up-to-date, and also includes protections to avoid the inadvertent removal of properly registered voters. “Year after year, people are taken off the voting rolls for all manner of innocuous reasons,” said Sarah Xiyi Chen, an attorney at the Texas Civil Rights Project.
Neither the governor nor the Secretary of State’s Office responded to requests for comment. Removal of ‘noncitizens’ raises questions The majority of voters removed from the rolls were taken off because they died, failed to respond to notices from election officials, or moved out of Texas. Abbott’s press release also said more than 6,000 voters were removed after being convicted of a felony.
The total Abbott cited includes more than 463,000 who were taken off after being placed on what is known as the suspense list. Such voters are removed after the voter registrar receives information that they have moved. If the voter does not update their information and does not vote for two election cycles, they’re then removed from the rolls.
In addition, the governor stressed that more than 6,500 “noncitizens” who shouldn’t have been registered were removed, and approximately 1,930 of those had a voting history. Voter watchdogs such as Alice Clapman, senior counsel at the Brennan Center’s Voting Rights Program, said they want to know more about those voters, because Texas has wrongly flagged people as noncitizens before. Erroneously flagging legal voters as noncitizens can occur when outdated information is obtained from naturalized citizens or if someone mistakenly checks the wrong box at the DMV, Clapman said.
In 2019, Texas officials flagged 95,000 voters whom they identified as “noncitizens” and accused broadly of voter fraud. After review, it turned out that many of the people identified on the rolls were naturalized citizens. The scandal resulted in the secretary of state resigning.
The state abandoned the effort after numerous lawsuits, which resulted in the state setting new guidelines for future voter roll clean-ups. ACLU of Texas attorney Ashley Harris points to the 2019 incident as an example of the state's lack of transparency about how it collects this data. “It's difficult to tell what these numbers actually mean, and the state hasn't pointed to anyone who actually voted as a noncitizen, and they've provided data without context,” Harris said.
There has been no evidence of widespread noncitizen voting in federal elections, even as Republicans across the county — including former President Donald Trump — have ramped up unproven claims. Clapman also said it’s unlikely that a noncitizen would risk deportation or other penalties to cast a single vote. “The very idea is so illogical,” Clapman said.
“It's irresponsible for politicians and others to be fanning the flames of misinformation out there and undermining trust in elections.” Officials say Texas has ‘strong, clean voter rolls’ County voter registrars conduct extensive voter roll mainstance on a daily basis. As they receive and process applications, eligibility status is verified by the Texas secretary of state.
But locally, one other way election officials check whether a voter is a U.S. citizen is through the local district attorney’s offices.
Across the state, those offices use their county voter rolls to send out jury summons questionnaires. Voters who respond to those surveys by indicating they’re not U.S.
citizens are not eligible to participate in a jury. That information is also used by the voter registrar’s office to remove noncitizens from the rolls. At a state House of Representatives committee hearing on elections Monday, officials with the Texas Secretary of State’s Office addressed how the state confirms that voters who register are U.
S. citizens, and eligible to cast a ballot. Christina Adkins, the agency’s elections division director, said that since 2021, the Texas Department of Public Safety on a weekly basis has provided data to the secretary of state from people who have obtained a state ID or driver’s license and identified as a noncitizen while doing so.
Through that process they’re required to show DPS documentation of lawful presence in the United States , such as a permanent resident card — known as a green card — or an immigrant visa. That data is compared with the voter rolls and sent to county voter registrars. In addition, election officials use information provided by volunteer deputy registrars — appointed by the county to help people register to vote — to check whether a voter registered at their U.
S. naturalization ceremony. If a voter provides the last four digits of their Social Security number on their voter registration application, the state also checks that the person on the application is who they say they are by matching first name, last name, and date of birth against data from the Social Security Administration.
Adkins emphasized the state has “strong, clean voter rolls” and that the state has been looking for ways to improve voter roll maintenance and eligibility verification practices. “For many, many, many years now, Texas has been on the forefront of making sure that we have the right data sets, that they are properly and securely validated,” she said. The state is also looking into working with the Texas Department of Criminal Justice to obtain data on Texans with felony convictions, who may be on probation or parole.
“Identifying these individuals that are ineligible doesn't just make for a strong voter registration list, it also prevents individuals from potentially making mistakes that could impact them negatively, too,” Adkins said. Last week, Attorney General Ken Paxton opened an investigation into “reports that organizations operating in Texas maybe unlawfully registering noncitizens to vote,” after a Fox News host made an unsubstantiated claim on social media that migrants were registering to vote outside a driver's license facility outside of Fort Worth. Both the county election administrator and Republican Party chair said they had investigated the claims and found no evidence.
The law Abbott signed in 2021 set new rules and penalties for voter assistance, made it a felony for local officials to proactively distribute applications for mail-in ballots, banned local initiatives to expand voting hours and drive through voters, and gave partisan poll watchers increased autonomy inside polling places, among other things. Time is running out to get your TribFest tickets! Be there Sept. 5–7 for 100-plus unforgettable conversations featuring more than 300 speakers, including Stacey Abrams , Colin Allred , Liz Cheney , Richard Linklater , Nancy Pelosi , Rick Perry and Gretchen Whitmer .
Hurry - buy your tickets today! This article originally appeared in The Texas Tribune at https://www.texastribune.org/2024/08/27/greg-abbott-voter-rolls-texas/ .
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Donald Trump tried to clean up the mess after his widely criticized visit to Arlington National Cemetery, where two of his staffers allegedly engaged in an altercation with an official trying to enforce rules against photographing gravesites. The former president and Republican nominee posed for photos and videos alongside the families of two service members killed in an August 2021 bombing attack, and many critics questioned why Trump posed with a grin plastered on his face and his customary thumbs-up gesture. A spokesperson for the cemetery said two campaign staffers engaged in a verbal and physical altercation with an official there.
“We can confirm there was an incident, and a report was filed,” the cemetery spokesperson said. ALSO READ: Rudy Giuliani finds a new low: platforming a Nazi Trump's campaign spokesman Stephen Cheung flatly denied the physical confrontation allegation, saying his team was prepared to release footage to refute the "defamatory claims," and Trump late Tuesday night posted a statement signed by Hoover's parent's and some of Gee's family members expressing their gratitude for the graveside visit. "We would like to express our heartfelt thoughts and appreciation to president Donald J.
Trump for his presence at the recent Section 60 gathering, honoring our children and their fallen brothers and sisters," read the statement . "On the three-year anniversary of the Abbey Gate bombing, the president and his team conducted themselves with nothing but the utmost respect and dignity for all of our service members, especially our beloved children." A source with knowledge of the incident said the official tried to enforce a federal law prohibiting political campaigns or election-related activities within Army National Military Cemeteries, which Cheung insisted was an individual experiencing a "mental health episode.
" "We had given our approval for President Trump's official videographer and photographer to attend the event, ensuring these sacred moments of remembrance were respectfully captured and so we can cherish these memories forever," the families' new statement added. "We are deeply grateful to the president for taking the time to honor our children and for standing alongside us in our grief, offering his unwavering support during such a difficult time. His compassion and respect meant more than words can express.
" As Democrats sue to block recent rule changes by Georgia’s State Election Board that could embolden county officials who want to refuse to certify an election, one expert believes that the Republican-led efforts are "desperate" and likely to fail — but could fuel bogus claims in other states and lead to violence. Three Republican Trump allies gained control of the five-member regulatory board this year, according to The Associated Press. Trump has praised the trio as "pit bulls fighting for honesty, transparency and victory.
" State and national Democratic parties sued this week to block the panel's rule changes, which would allow election officials to conduct a reasonable inquiry before certifying election results, as well as allow county election boards to investigate ballot counts. The changes have been criticized by watchdogs as a second attempt to repeat the so-called "Big Lie" in 2024 and overturn or delay elections . David Becker, executive director and founder of the nonpartisan nonprofit Center for Election Innovation & Research told CNN's Laura Coates on Tuesday night that the certification process is simply a "nondiscretionary ministerial act of giving legal effect to an election.
" ALSO READ: Democrats are reclaiming freedom and the American flag "It is not an opportunity for political appointees to decide they don't like the election results and delay or stop the certification or conduct any kind of inquiry. There's another path for that," he said," in Georgia and in every other state." In Georgia, certification is necessary to pursue that path, he said.
If the state board is successful in its changes, it could allow for election results to be delayed or lead to the halting of certification, "presumably only if the candidate that they don't like wins." The presidential election has some unalterable dates, such as Dec. 11, the date of ascertainment of electors and Dec.
17, the meeting of electors and, notably, Jan. 6, the joint session of Congress. "There could be a really desperate attempt to try to delay or stop those efforts," Becker said, but said ultimately, he believes the "desperate attempt will fail even if the state board is successful.
" However, he added, doing so could "give false oxygen to claims that an election was stolen, which could lead to volatility and lead to violence." Watch the clip below or at this link . Indigenous tribes and conservation groups applauded the Biden administration on Tuesday for listening to the demands of Alaska Natives, who have called on the federal government to protect 28 million acres of land in the state from mining—warning that failing to do so would threaten food security and cultural identity for tens of thousands of people.
U.S. Interior Secretary Deb Haaland's announcement that the land would be protected from mining interests—reversing a decision by former President Donald Trump , the Republican presidential nominee—"is a big deal for the communities and wildlife who call Alaska home," said Dan Ritzman of the Sierra Club .
"These lands and waters are unparalleled not only for their natural beauty, but for the habitat they provide imperiled wildlife, and the recreation opportunities they offer us," said Ritzman, who heads the group's Conservation Campaign. "These 28 million acres are some of the last truly intact wildlands in the United States. Secretary Haaland deserves credit for listening to those who have called for their protection for generations to come.
" The Bureau of Land Managament (BLM) said Trump made an "unlawful decision" when his administration ended longstanding protections for the lands "without sufficient analysis of the potential impacts of such a decision on subsistence and other important resources, appropriate tribal consultation, and without compliance with other legal requirements," opening the lands to oil and gas extraction. "Tribal consultation must be treated as a requirement—not an option—when the federal government is making decisions that could irrevocably affect tribal communities," said Haaland. "Continuing these essential protections, which have been in place for decades, will ensure continued access and use of these public lands now and in the future.
" "These 28 million acres are some of the last truly intact wildlands in the United States." The Wild Salmon Center noted that the lands in question contain some of the largest remaining intact ecosystems in the country, "from high alpine tundra to the pristine estuaries and wetlands in places like Bristol Bay, home to the world's most abundant wild sockeye salmon runs." Alaska Native tribes have also called for the public lands to be protected because they serve as a habitat for caribou.
"Secretary Haaland's decision today is an important step toward a future full of healthy lands, waters, and people who thrive on wild salmon, waterfowl, other migratory animals, and seasonal plant life," said Anaan'arar Sophie Swope, executive director of Mother Kuskokwim Tribal Coalition. "Our Yukon-Kuskokwim region's wetlands are vital to our people's way of life." Swope said the coalition is pushing for further action from the BLM to stop the "dangerous and destructive" 315-mile pipeline proposed by Donlin Gold.
"These actions would ensure future generations' ability to safely live on the land while carrying our customary and traditional knowledge," said Swope. Haaland's announcement comes two months after the Biden administration blocked the construction of an industrial road that would have opened access for mining in Alaska, and weeks after the BLM proposed expanded protections for the Western Arctic—but President Joe Biden's approval of the Willow oil extraction project has been condemned as an "oil stain" on his climate record. Drew McConville, senior fellow for the Center for American Progress, said the restored protections announced Tuesday are an "historic victory for public lands and the result of unwavering advocacy from Alaska Native communities.
" "The Trump administration's attempt to open them up to industrial development was both shortsighted and reckless," said McConville, "especially when Alaska is warming at more than two times the pace of the rest of the planet.".
