Legislators in Texas hear concern about Bill to require proof of citizenship to vote

Democratic legislators and the voters of Texas spent almost four hours on 24 April during a legislative hearing and demanded how to know how a bill of voters supported by the Gop would work, and warned that the eligible Texans could deprive.

The voter of Houston, Jacqueline Altman, told the members of the election committee of the house that it recently took two days to obtain a copy of her birth certificate from the province, a trial for which she had to work to be in the provincial offices.

“When decisions are made about this kind of documentation, I ask us all to consider that,” said Altman, one of the Texans dozen, which, in contrast to the bill, testified.

House Bill 5337 goes beyond the laws and proposals in some other states, because it would apply retroactively to already registered voters in Texas, not just new applicants, Tuning say. Texas has More than 18 million registered voters.

Officials of the State Secretary of the State Secretary of Texas told the legislators on 24 April that they estimate that around 500,000 currently registered voters who have no driving number or SOFI number in their voter’s registration record should deliver.

That group could include many people who registered before the early 2000s, when federal voting laws began to demand that people are issued by the State or driving licenses of directors to provide proof of citizenship or legal presence to the American election officers, said that many are probably the elderly.

How big is a problem that non -citizens vote in Texas?

HB 5337 is identical to Senate bill 16what the Senate passed along party lines And with little debate earlier this month. The house version of the legislation is partly sponsored by 50 Republican legislators.

The legislation is modeled on a law of Arizona that requires proof of citizenship to vote for national and local elections. The legislation in Texas would also hinder voters who do not provide citizenship certificates to vote for presidential elections; Has a similar limitation in Arizona So far has been blocked by federal courts.

The Texas accounts would also require that local election officials constantly check the state status of voters on their roles – and the officials subject to possible charges if they cancel. A state error has recently left in Arizona when citizenship election officers who have difficulty manage the required consistent.

Republican legislators in Texas have been responding to a national Gop campaign for months to raise an alarm about the threat of non -citizen votes, although available evidence shows that it is extremely rare.

In December the State Secretary of Texas the legislative power That in 2024 election officials 63 registrations for non -citizenship have canceled and 124 for not responding to a notification to request proof of citizenship. Voters who did not respond to a notification can still be citizens.

During the hearing of the elections committee on 24 April said, Rep. Carrie Isaac, a Dripping Springs Republican that leads to the push for the home version of the legislation, that the goal is to prevent all non -citizens from registering to vote.

Isaac mentioned an announcement by Gov last fall. Greg Abbott that 6,500 non -citizens were removed from Texas selection roles before 2024. A study found by Votbeat, Texas Tribune and Propublica Abbott’s figures were blown up and in some cases wrong.

In a three -year period, the state actually removed 581 people as non -citizens. The remaining 6000 or so were people who could not have responded to a notification asking to confirm their citizenship, which does not mean that they were not citizens. The Research has indeed been found That some eligible citizens were marked as potential non -citizens and were removed from the roles.

State representative John Bucy, a Democrat by Austin and Vice chairman of the election committee, described the data that Isaac mentioned as “misleading” and pointed out that election officials already check the roles for potential non -citizens.

“The system we have is working,” Bucy told Isaac. “We catch people. We clean the sandwiches and do not vote.”

Isaac said that the number of documented cases of non -citizens who ‘may seem small’, but said that there was no reliable way to measure its scope ‘because the current system does not require documentation of citizenship’.

The bill would cost the state officials almost $ 2 million in the coming five years to implement, according to the tax memorandum of the account. That number does not include the costs for local election officials.

Some Texans do not have access to citizenship documents

Research suggests that lack of accessible citizenship documentation could be a more widespread issue than not -citizens.

In Texas, the Republicans have more often than Democrats to miss documented proof of citizenship, a 2024 Study by the Center for Democracy and Civic Engagement found at the University of Maryland. One percent of Republicans did not have it, the researchers have found, and 7% have no easy access to their documents, while almost all Texas Democrats have documented evidence and 4% do not have easy access.

The study also showed that younger Texans are three times more likely to gain access to their documented proof of citizenship than older Texans.

According to legislation, voters could pay the requirement by offering one of the following:

• A copy of an American passport;
• a passport card;
• a certified copy of a birth certificate issued by an American state or territory;
• “Citizenship papers of the United States”;
• Identification issued by the American agency that is responsible for citizenship and immigration; or
• For citizens born outside the US, a consular report of birth abroad.

Everyone who shows the polls that does not yet have to provide proof of citizenship has six days to provide this to have their entire ballot count. If a voter does not provide this, only the voices in congress races are counted.

The list of accepted documents contains no tribal documents that Arizona accepts. Cecilia Flores, the chairman of the Tribal Council for the Alabama-Coushatta tribe of Texas, who is located in East-Texas, asked legislators on 24 April to include tribal documents in that list. In Arizona, Found a voting analysis Voters who lived in the tribal country were previously on the federal voter list, which indicates that they have difficulty delivering citizenship.

“Although many of our tribal citizens may have a good birth certificate, my mother was born in 1928 and I have never seen her birth certificate,” said Flores.

Bucy asked Isaac and other republicans in the committee to consider changes in the account that would expand the type of acceptable IDs and documents.

The house account was left on 24 April. The house and the senate must both take the same version of the legislation, which would then go to Abbott for his signature.

This story was produced by Tuning and assessed and distributed by Pile.

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