AUSTIN, Texas –State Senator Charles Perry (R-Lubbock) filed two bills this week aimed at combating voter fraud in Texas elections. The bills would allow Texas to conduct an interstate crosscheck to prevent duplicate voter registrations across state lines and the second bill would allow the state to use non-citizen lists developed in jury duty selection to check for fraudulent voter registrations.
Perry, who co-sponsored and helped pass Texas’ Voter ID bill during his first Session in the Legislature, provided a statement to Breitbart Texas that described the bills and his reasons for supporting them. “Election integrity is important; we cannot have individuals cast multiple ballots or allow non-citizens to remain on our voter rolls,” said Perry.
The first bill, SB 795, implements an “interstate voter registration crosscheck program” to make sure that those who are voting in Texas are not also registered to vote in other states. The bill currently has twelve other Republican Senators as co-sponsors.
According to a report by Watchdog.org last year, an interstate voter cross check conducted in twenty-eight states found nearly seven million overlapping voter registrations, illustrating the scale of the problem. Notably, this study did not include the three largest states: California, Texas, and Florida.
The second bill, SB 796, allows the non-citizen lists compiled during jury selection processes to be used to determine if non-citizens voted in an election.
Currently, these lists are publicly available but the law prohibits them from being used in voter fraud investigations. SB 796 would remedy that.
True the Vote President Catherine Engelbrecht praised the bills, especially in light of what she described as “a fast track to voter fraud” that would be caused by President Barack Obama’s announcement that he wanted to enact amnesty for illegal immigrants by executive order. “Establishing voter roll maintenance procedures like interstate and jury wheel check programs are more critical now than ever before,” Engelbrecht told Breitbart Texas. “Thank God for strong Texas legislators who are taking action to defend the constitutional rights of the American voter.”
“The act of voting is one of the most precious rights we as citizens can exercise,” said Perry. “To protect the integrity of the process, we must ensure the principle of one person, one vote is upheld. Implementing both of these bills will go a long way towards restoring voter confidence and ensuring our elections are fair and reliable.”
Follow Sarah Rumpf on Twitter @rumpfshaker.
COMMENTS
Please let us know if you're having issues with commenting.