Texas House Passes Election Integrity Bill

After a 17-hour session on the House Floor, Texas Republicans finally claimed a victory in securing a major election integrity bill. The Texas House of Representatives passed Senate Bill 7 in a 78 to 64 vote and Gov. Greg Abbott is expected to sign it into law soon. The bill’s sponsor state Rep. Briscoe Cain joined his Republican colleagues in their goal to safeguard elections in Texas and protect them from woke corporations and liberal media pressure. While Democrats call it voter suppression, Republicans prove it is election integrity.

“The purpose of this is to make it even more safe and secure. The constitution commands the legislature to pass legislation to attack fraud and to preserve the purity of the ballot box, and I’ve seen a lot of polling suggesting the trust in our elections process is down,” Cain said.

The House’s version of the Election Integrity Bill voted on 19 amendments such as prohibiting public officials from altering or waiving an election practice, ensuring that voter registration is legitimate, providing additional protection to voting by mail, prohibiting local governments from spending tax dollars to influence the voting by mail, and prohibiting poll watchers from harassing voters. It would also add an offense for voting in Texas and another state in the same election, as well as knowingly counting invalid votes or failing to count valid votes.

The bill also includes stricter requirements for individuals assisting others with their ballots, as well as detailed disclosures of information on the people who assist voters.

The bill has had weeks of public discussion, debate, and delays, on the House Floor. Members considered a revised version of SB7 to the language contained in House Bill 6. The two election integrity bills were substantially different but included election integrity on a number of measures. Because the House and Senate passed different versions of the bill, they will develop a conference committee to negotiate a mutually acceptable version for approval by both chambers.

Rep. Chip Roy even wrote a letter to Texas House Speaker Dade Phelan, Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick, and two other state legislators encouraging them to include several specific provisions in the final bill. He said it is important to require voter identification for absentee ballots and said it would create a “more secure, more uniform voting process in Texas” that would maintain access for all voters.

“Texas should not fall idle to any of these attempts aimed at mischaracterizing and attacking election security. Despite the spread of misinformation and self-indulging virtue-signaling by corporations, Texans know the truth: election reforms are a necessary, common-sense step to ensuring our elections are protected against potential fraud,” Roy wrote.

He said “regardless of which legislative vehicle receives a final vote on the floor,” they should ensure that the bill requires voter identification for both in-person voting and absentee ballots, improve the integrity of mail-in ballots, prohibit ballot harvesting, ensure the integrity of voter registration rolls, and provide oversight and ethics for counties accepting private money to fund government election operations.

“While the media spin on this has grown louder, I stand with each of you to tune out the noise and remain focused on the goal of making it easy to vote and hard to cheat in the great state of Texas. All lawmakers should support these important reforms and put the minds of Texans at ease by restoring confidence in the election process,” Roy concluded in his letter.

Sen. Ted Cruz also shared in a Facebook post that the bill will protect the voting rights of 29 million Texans and make their elections more accessible and more secure. He said when Texans go to cast a vote, that their vote should count.

Democrats will never stop cheating their way to power until there are laws in place to catch them. Until then they will claim “voter suppression” to protect their voter fraud. They can’t win if they can’t cheat.