Texas recently purged thousands of non-citizens and felons who were improperly registered on its voter rolls after the implementation of a 2021 law touted as an initiative to protect election integrity in the Lone Star state. According to reports from Governor Greg Abbott, Texas removed nearly 1 million ineligible voters from its rolls, including 6500 non-citizens and 6,000 felons.
Gov. Abbott said, “Election integrity is essential to our democracy. I have signed the strongest election laws in the nation to protect the right to vote and to crackdown 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.”
Abbott further maintained that the state will remain diligent in safeguarding Texas’ democratic processes. “We will continue to actively safeguard Texans’ sacred right to vote while also aggressively protecting our elections from illegal voting,” he said, while noting the process is ongoing.
The mover from Texas mirrors action being taken in other conservative states across the country. The American Tribune recently reported on efforts in Ohio where an extensive audit of their voter rolls found hundreds of non-citizens who were registered to vote. The state secretary quickly purged the non-citizens from the voter rolls and referred 138 individuals to the state’s attorney general for prosecution.
Ohio Secretary of State Frank LeRose said, “I swore an oath to uphold the constitution of our state, and that document clearly states that only United States citizens can participate in Ohio elections. That means I’m duty-bound to make sure people who haven’t yet earned citizenship in this country aren’t voting. If or when they do become citizens, I’ll be the first one to congratulate them and welcome them to the franchise, but until then the law requires us to remove ineligible registrations to prevent illegal voting.”
LaRose maintained that it was his duty to protect the integrity of Ohio’s election processes, stating, “I’m duty-bound to make sure people who haven’t yet earned citizenship in this country do not vote in our elections. We’ve so far identified 597 individuals who’ve registered to vote in Ohio despite not being citizens of the United States, as our state constitution requires.”
LaRose added that noncitizens who broke the law will be held accountable. “The evidence includes 138 individuals who appear to have cast a ballot in an Ohio election during the time state and federal records show they lacked citizenship status. The law requires me to refer these individuals to the attorney general, and that’s what we’re doing today,” he said.
“I want to give these folks the benefit of the doubt and say that most of them didn’t intend to break the law,” LaRose continued. However, he maintained that necessary action must be taken to safeguard elections. “We want to make sure a mistaken registration doesn’t become an illegal vote. We also want to make sure that lawfully registered citizens can participate seamlessly in the process.”
Watch House Speaker Mike Johnson emphasize the need to protect elections amid the illegal immigration crisis under the Biden-Harris administration:
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