Austin Bureau Correspondent
AUSTIN – Texas voters would have to prove they are U.S. citizens to register to vote under a state bill lawmakers began debating Thursday.
The proposal from Sen. Bryan Hughes, R-Mineola, is one of several election bills filed this legislative session. It would further the state’s current voter ID laws by requiring people to provide proof of citizenship, such as a birth certificate, passport or naturalization certificate, to be added to the voter rolls.
Texas adopted a sweeping law — also pushed by Hughes — in 2021 that included requiring ID requirements for mail-in ballots. Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick made Hughes’ latest bill a priority this year.
State and federal law only allow citizens to vote.
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Generally, the onus of determining the citizenship of a voter is placed on the state. Hughes’ proposal – Senate Bill 16 – would place that responsibility on the prospective voter. It would apply to new voters and existing voters who did not provide proof of citizenship when they registered.
Hughes presented the bill for a public hearing on Thursday. No action was taken. However, with all Senate Republicans signed on as co-authors of the bill, the legislation appears poised to pass the Senate.
Opponents fear the bill would create new barriers to voting in order to tackle an exceedingly rare issue. Supporters, such as David Carter, a Bell County election judge, testified that a large number of Texans already provided proof of citizenship when obtaining a driver’s license or state ID renewal with the Texas Department of Public Safety.
“It’s a non-issue to provide proof. They’ve already done it,” Carter said.
Last year, 187 voters had their registration canceled because they were suspected non-citizens, roughly 0.0001% of the total number of Texas voters, according to Danny Woodward, a policy attorney at the Texas Civil Rights Project who testified that it is a “vanishingly small” problem.
“Most of those were failure to respond to a query about their citizenship status,” Woodward said.
Gov. Greg Abbott’s office has said it found about 6,500 potential non-citizens on Texas’ voter rolls.
“Questions have been raised about the state’s ability to prevent non-citizens from registering to vote,” Hughes said, referencing Abbott’s statements.
But Abbott’s numbers have been called into question.
An October investigation from ProPublica, The Texas Tribune and Votebeat found that several people in the governor’s numbers were inflated, and the list contained several U.S. citizens.
The bill emulates Arizona’s proof of citizenship law and would create a split ballot system in which voters who have not proven they are citizens could only vote in U.S. House and Senate races. They could not vote in presidential elections, which could run afoul of a Supreme Court ruling on the Arizona law that created that state’s divided federal-state ballot system.
County election offices would use state databases and other resources to try to find proof that registered voters are citizens. If no proof is found, an affected voter would receive a notification via mail. They would be allowed to vote in all elections, but their vote would not be counted in state and local elections unless they can provide proof of citizenship within six days of the election.
While voters across all spectrums could be impacted, the bill could have a disproportionate effect on older, Republican voters who registered before any voter ID laws were in effect, according to Jessica Hulett, Houston regional director for the election access advocacy group VoteRiders.
Kaden Mattingly, a Baylor University political science student, said Republicans’ strong support for the measure despite its possible negative impact on their prospects at elections indicated how serious of an issue it is to conservatives.
“I was surprised to find out that this is not already the law,” Mattingly said.
Philip Jankowski has covered government, politics and criminal justice in Texas for 17 years. He previously worked for the Austin American-Statesman, the Killeen Daily Herald and the Taylor Press. Philip is a graduate of the University of Texas at Austin.
