Texas Senate Renews Efforts to Make Illegal Voting a Criminal Offense

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Republican leaders in the Texas Senate are set to raise the penalty for illegal voting from a misdemeanor to a felony in the second degree, despite a lack of evidence of widespread voter fraud in Texas. The effort comes almost two years after the Legislature passed the Senate Comprehensive Bill 1, which reduced the penalties for such crimes to a misdemeanor, and then began discussing increasing them almost immediately.

Senate Bill 2, introduced on Tuesday by State Senator Brian Hughes, Republican Mineola, will also change the standard for determining someone’s intent regarding illegal voting, policy experts say. The law enacted under SB 1 states that a person commits an offense if they “knowingly or intentionally” vote or attempt to vote in an election in which that person “knows they are not entitled” to vote. Hughes’ new bill changes that wording so that anyone who votes or attempts to vote in an election in which “a person is aware of certain circumstances that disqualify a person from voting” could be charged.

This means that instead of proving beyond reasonable doubt that the voter knew they were voting illegally, prosecutors would only need to show beyond reasonable doubt that the voter knew about the circumstances that disenfranchised them, said James Slattery. , senior supervising legislative attorney for the Texas Civil Rights Project.

For example, if a voter knew they were not a US citizen but did not know they were not eligible to vote, they could still be prosecuted. Or if someone knew they were convicted of a felony, were on parole, and didn’t know they weren’t eligible to vote.

“This is a very unfortunate and potentially repercussions position,” Slattery said. “That’s why there’s this requirement of intent, because it’s not fair for people to go to jail for honest mistakes.”

Hughes did not return calls, emails or text messages asking for comment. Public hearings on the bill are scheduled for Monday during a meeting of the State Affairs Committee chaired by Hughes.

The punishment for such crimes was reduced to a misdemeanor last session under SB 1, which is also authored by Hughes. The penalty reduction amendment was added by Rep. Steve Ellison, R.R. San Antonio, during a House debate on the legislation and went unnoticed until the bill was signed into law by Gov. Greg Abbott. In 2021, Lieutenant Governor Dan Patrick stated that the “last minute” change should be corrected.

Now Patrick has added a new bill to his list of legislative priorities for this session. If found guilty of a crime, a person could face up to 20 years in prison and more than $10,000 in fines. With the same goal, at least five other bills were introduced in the House of Representatives and the Senate. Back in 2021, Abbott called for an increase in the fine during a special legislative session, but House Speaker Dade Phelan, a Republican, expressed skepticism at the time, and the measure did not make it to Abbott’s desk.

The case of Crystal Mason of Tarrant County received state and national attention and became the subject of political debate after she was sentenced to five years in prison in 2016 for illegal voting. federal conviction and did not know that she did not have the right to vote.

When Mason was charged, the crime was a felony in the second degree. Because she did not know that she did not have the right to vote, the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals filed an application to the lower court of appeals for a review. The result is still pending.

Some voting rights advocates say that if lawmakers want to continue restricting voting access and tougher penalties for election-related crimes, they should also invest in improving voter education and outreach in Texas. They say that SB 2 is not trying to solve this problem.

“SB 2 feels like an admission from the state that they are doing a poor job of teaching Texans to vote and a concession that they have no plans to do better,” said Anthony Gutierrez, chief executive of Common Cause Texas. For the 2022 election cycle, the Texas Legislature has allocated $3.5 million for voter education. Advocates say this is not enough to reach more than 16 million registered voters in the state.

“The real problem here is that if you increase the punishment for a crime, you might think that the state will take some responsibility for letting people know what the law is, so [voters] know not to break the law,” Gutiérrez said, adding that tougher penalties could also deter some eligible voters from voting. vote if there is police to vote and if they risk criminal charges if they are not aware of all the new electoral laws.”

At least two bills filed this session would also expand Attorney General Ken Paxton’s powers to prosecute election-related crimes after the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals ruled he had no power to do so. Paxton’s office has launched more than 300 investigations into potential election crimes by voters and poll workers in the past two years, but has convicted only a handful.

SB 2 also states that a person can be charged with illegal voting if they “knowingly or intentionally” attempt to vote in an election more than once; vote or attempt to vote using a ballot belonging to another person or impersonating another person; flag or attempt to flag any part of another person’s ballot without that person’s consent or without specific instructions from that person how to flag the ballot; or vote or attempt to vote in an election in Texas after voting in another state in an election in which the federal office is on the ballot and the election day is the same in both states.

According to the Office of the Secretary of State, a person eligible to vote in Texas must be:

US citizen.

A resident of the district in which they intend to vote.

Minimum 18 years old. (People can register at the age of 17 years and 10 months.)

Not convicted of a felony (unless their sentence has been served, including any probation or parole).

Not recognized by the court as mentally incompetent.

Registered 30 days before the election in which they plan to vote.

Natalia Contreras does election administration and voting access for Votebeat in partnership with The Texas Tribune. Contact Natalia at [email protected].

Disclosure: Common Cause and the Secretary of State of Texas provided financial support to The Texas Tribune, a non-profit, non-partisan news organization funded in part by donations from members, foundations, and corporate sponsors. Financial sponsors play no role in Tribune journalism. Find their complete list here.

This article first appeared in The Texas Tribune.

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