Abbott Says Texas Has Purged Over A Million Ineligible Voters
Authored by Rick Moran via PJMedia.com,
Purging voter registration rolls should not be controversial.
The process is part of ensuring the integrity of the vote, making sure that ineligible voters are not allowed a ballot.
But for some Democrats looking to make an issue of purging people from the voter rolls, it's a racist attempt to deny people of color the right to vote.
Do states purge some eligible voters from the rolls inadvertently or by mistake? No doubt the answer to that question is yes. Perhaps someone who moved forgot to change their address. Perhaps they didn't notice the postcard that came in the mail reminding them to register with their new address.
The fact is that the overwhelming number of people who are purged from voter rolls were either dead or moved without telling the local registrar.
Stupidity and laziness are colorblind.
Gov. Greg Abbot (R-Texas) announced yesterday that Texas had purged more than one million voters from the registration rolls.
“The Secretary of State and county voter registrars have an ongoing legal requirement to review the voter rolls, remove ineligible voters, and refer any potential illegal voting to the attorney general’s office and local authorities for investigation and prosecution,” Abbott said in a press release.
“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.”
Since Senate Bill 1 passed in 2021, 1.1 million people have had their names purged from voter registration rolls. "Among the 1.1 million removed from Texas’s voter rolls are over 457,000 people who died and over 463,000 people on the state’s suspense list, the governor said Monday" reports the Washington Examiner.
Abbott also noted how over 6,500 of these voters removed from Texas’s voter rolls were noncitizens, 1,930 of whom have a voting history. The Texas Secretary of State’s office is working on sending all 1,930 of these records to Attorney General Ken Paxton’s Office for investigation and any legal action.
The Texas governor’s news comes shortly after Gov. Glenn Youngkin (R-VA) issued an executive order to “protect legal voters and accurate counts,” which included “stringent ballot security, complete and thorough counting machine testing,” and “best-in-the-nation voter list maintenance.” The order also revealed that between January 2022 and July 2024, 6,303 noncitizens were removed from the state’s voter rolls.
On Thursday, the Supreme Court ruled on Arizona's proof of citizenship law, allowing the state to require those registering to vote to present proof of citizenship. Republican National Committee Chairman Lara Trump called the decision “a huge win” for the RNC. She also said the decision “sets a precedent across the country” for other states to take similar action.
“Voting is a sacred right that must be preserved for citizens who qualify under our elections laws,” Texas Secretary of State Jane Nelson said.
“My responsibility is to ensure free and fair elections and that only qualified voters participate.”
As part of the SOS voter roll oversight process, records of potential non-citizens are sent to counties, and voter registrars are required by law to investigate and remove all ineligible voters. The SOS is also by law required to “withhold election funds from a county voter registrar for failure to approve, change, or cancel a voter’s registration in a timely manner,” according to a new law that went into effect in 2021.
Her office “monitors each voter registrar’s list maintenance activity on an ongoing basis for compliance with their voter registration cancellation duties,” Nelson said.
Nelson also reminded registrars that they have the right to initiate their own investigations, as do Texas voters.
In Texas, it's going to be extremely difficult for an illegal alien to vote, just as it is in every other state. But both Democrats and Republicans should welcome measures that either party takes to prevent election skullduggery.