Gov. Greg Abbott announced on Monday that Texas has removed over one million ineligible voters from its rolls since 2021, marking a significant milestone in state efforts to maintain election integrity.
“Election integrity is essential to our democracy,” said Abbott in a press release. “I have signed the strongest election laws in the nation to protect the right to vote and to crack down on illegal voting. These reforms have led to the removal of over one million ineligible people from our voter rolls in the last three years, including noncitizens, deceased voters, and people who moved to another state.”
Data from Abbott’s office reveals that over 6,500 “noncitizens” have been removed, alongside more than 6,000 individuals with felony convictions. It is unclear how many of the noncitizens were illegal aliens.
Additionally, more than 457,000 deceased persons have been struck from the rolls, and the names of more than 463,000 voters who were on the suspended list have been purged. The names of more than 134,000 voters who had indicated they moved out of state were also removed, along with more than 65,000 who failed to respond to confirmation notices and over 19,000 who voluntarily canceled their registration.
Among the noncitizens removed, approximately 1,930 had a history of voting, according to the governor’s press release. These cases will be referred to the Texas Attorney General’s Office for review. The governor noted that potential legal consequences loom for those involved in illegal voting activities.
Last year, HB 1243 was signed into law, increasing penalties for illegal voting, including imposing a second-degree felony charge for noncitizens who cast ballots.
In 2017, Abbott signed SB 5, which increased penalties for election workers who knowingly allow noncitizens or other ineligible individuals to vote.
This most recent announcement from Abbott’s office follows a series of reforms launched under SB 1, which, among other measures, criminalized false statements on voter registration documents, prohibited “ballot harvesting,” and implemented new standards for election audits.
“Senate Bill 1 ensures trust and confidence in our elections system, and most importantly, it makes it easier to vote and harder to cheat,” Abbott said when enacting the bill 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,” Abbott declared in Monday’s press release.
Election fraud is difficult to track, so the prevalence of such criminal activity nationwide has been widely debated.
A report by The Heritage Foundation, released in conjunction with its Election Fraud Database statistics, claims:
“The big problem is that nobody really knows the extent of election fraud, including us. While we are not making any definitive claims about the extent of election fraud in our country, we are confident in saying that there are far too many vulnerabilities in our current system.”