On Monday, Texas Republican Governor Greg Abbott announced the removal of over one million voters from the state’s voter rolls as part of an effort to protect election integrity and crack down on illegal voting. The purge targeted individuals who had moved out of state, were deceased, or were noncitizens.
In 2017, Abbott signed Senate Bill 5 (SB 5) into law, which increased penalties for election workers who allow noncitizens and ineligible individuals to vote. He continued these efforts in 2021 by signing Senate Bill 1 (SB 1), which established statewide voting hours, maintained and expanded access for registered voters needing assistance, prohibited drive-through voting, authorized poll watchers to observe more aspects of the election process, banned the distribution of unsolicited mail-in ballot applications and ballots, and required IDs for mail-in ballots.
That same year, Abbott signed Senate Bill 1113 and House Bill 574 into law. These bills empowered the Secretary of State to withhold funds from counties that fail to remove noncitizens from their voter rolls and made it a second-degree felony to knowingly count invalid votes or refuse to count valid ones.
As a result of these measures, more than 1.1 million voters have been purged from the rolls, including approximately 6,500 noncitizens.
In a statement, Abbott emphasized the importance of election integrity: “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 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.”
He further stated, “The Secretary of State and county voter registrars have an ongoing legal requirement to review the voter rolls, remove ineligible voters, and refer any potential illegal voting to the Attorney General’s Office and local authorities for investigation and prosecution. 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 acknowledged the significant number of voters removed, saying, “The number of people purged is obviously higher than what we want to see—we want to see zero. I don’t care what your color is—black, white, brown, Asian—I think everybody wants to see fair elections with the rules followed and no illegal voting.”