TYLER, Texas — An East Texas senator, who authored an election integrity law in 2021 aimed at ending illegal voting and ballot harvesting, is seeking to make illegal voting a felony.
Bryan Hughes, R-Mineola, has authored Senate Bill 2 that would make voting illegally a felony instead of a Class A misdemeanor, according to the bill.
If passed, SB 2 would amend the Election Code to make a person found guilty of any of these acts to be convicted of a second-degree felony. However, if they are convicted of attempting these offenses, the person would be found guilty of a state jail felony:
- Voting or attempting to vote in which the person knows they are not eligible to vote
- Voting or trying to vote more than once in an election
- Voting or trying to vote a ballot belonging to another person or by impersonating another person
- Marking or attempting to mark any part of another person's ballot without their consent or specific instruction on how to mark the ballot
- Voting or attempting to vote in Texas after voting in another state in which the race is for a federal office and the Election Day is on the same day
In 2021, Gov. Greg Abbott signed Hughes' Senate Bill 1, also known as the Election Integrity Protection Act of 2021.
The law banned drive-thru voting and 24-hour voting. It also set uniform hours for early voting. Local election officials can face felony charges for sending unsolicited mail-in ballot applications to voters.
Those who want to vote-by-mail must give their driver’s license number or the last four digits of their Social Security number when they apply for a mail-in ballot and when they send it back.
People who help a voter fill out their ballot must complete paperwork to document their relationship to the voter. Partisan poll watchers have to complete training.
The Texas Secretary of State’s Office is required to run its voter registration list against DPS’s database to remove anyone who is not a U.S. citizen.