The Texas House and Senate have approved legislation that would prohibit the counting of invalid ballots or refusing to count lawful ballots.
House Bill 574 (HB 574) is one of several anti-fraud and election integrity bills proposed by the Texas legislature.
According to Chad Ennis of the Texas Public Policy Foundation, a great deal of misunderstanding has emerged regarding the Texas' election integrity bills.
“There is an astounding amount of disinformation surrounding Texas Legislature’s election integrity bills,” Ennis stated. “Among the many mischaracterizations, two stand out: claims of racism buttressed by fabricated history and the objections to letting poll watchers do their jobs.”
Some critics of Texas' election integrity bills have argued that voter fraud is a non-issue; however, the Houston Republic reported that Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton has prosecuted incidents of voting fraud in recent years. Nevertheless, no evidence of widespread voter fraud in the 2020 general election has been presented in any legal venue and bi-partisan election officials across the country have refuted claims of significant voter fraud.
“Many continue to claim that there’s no such thing as election fraud. We’ve always known that such a claim is false and misleading and today we have additional hard evidence," Paxton said in a January release. "This is a victory for election integrity and a strong signal that anyone who attempts to defraud the people of Texas, deprive them of their vote, or undermine the integrity of elections will be brought to justice."
Paxton did not specify who claims election fraud does not exist.
Direct Action Texas, the state's largest election integrity advocacy group, has suggested that the Texas Legislature over-complicated what should have been a straightforward procedure.
“To its shame, Texas lags other states when it comes to reforming elections in 2021,” Daniel Greer, who heads Direct Action, told The Center Square. “Take Georgia, for instance, where a clean election integrity bill passed in 30 days, and included a provision mandating Voter ID for mail-in balloting. Right now, this common-sense policy isn’t part of Texas’ omnibus election integrity bill.”
Election integrity is one of the Texas GOP's top priorities this session, which includes implementing voter citizenship verification and felony penalties for Election Code violations that compromise election integrity.
In addition to this bill, the House has introduced 16 other bills that also address various election-related issues; however, several of these bills have still not make it through committees.
HB 574 is currently on its way to the governor's desk for approval.
