7 Key Election Integrity Bills Filed in Texas Senate

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Texas Scorecard by Erin Anderson March 8, 2021

“These ‘Integrity Seven’ bills will start a needed discussion to create uniformity to make sure the problems we faced in 2020 will not happen again.”

A group of Texas state senators has filed seven key bills to protect election integrity, a top legislative priority for Texas Republican activists that was designated an emergency item by Gov. Greg Abbott over a month ago.

State Sen. Paul Bettencourt (R–Houston) announced the new bills on Monday, saying they “are important to ensuring a trusted, accurate and fair voting process.”

Interest in securing the vote intensified during 2020, as election officials across the country used fears about the Chinese coronavirus as an excuse to loosen voting rules, and controversies surrounding November’s election results heightened Texans’ concerns about voting accuracy and integrity.

Bettencourt’s bills, filed Friday, focus on maintaining accurate voter rolls, setting uniform and transparent voting processes, enforcing compliance by local election officials, and ensuring election disputes are resolved quickly by courts.

“The November 2020 election demonstrated the lack of transparency and lack of integrity within the election process,” Bettencourt said. “The integrity of the voter roll is paramount to the entire electoral process and we must restore confidence in the voter roll for future elections for all Texans.”

More: https://texasscorecard.com/state/7-key-election-integrity-bills-filed-in-texas-senate/

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Bettancourt is as good as they come in Austin.

Harrris County went way over to the other side when they lost him as Tax Assessor.

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Texas Scorecard by Erin Anderson March 12, 2021

Election integrity is a top legislative priority for the Texas GOP and the only one also designated an emergency item by Gov. Abbott.

Just ahead of this week’s deadline, Texas lawmakers in both chambers filed two big bills addressing election integrity, one of the key priorities for the legislative session.

The highly anticipated omnibus bills, House Bill 6 and Senate Bill 7, feature long lists of election procedures and ballot security measures identified by advocates as needed reforms to improve voting reliability and voter confidence—including a curb on mail-ballot vote harvesters.

Election integrity is a top legislative priority for the Texas GOP and the only one also designated an emergency item by Republican Gov. Greg Abbott.

Both bills are likely to receive extensive debate and undergo revisions in committee before making their way to the House and Senate floors. Republicans hold a majority in both chambers.

SB 7, introduced Thursday and immediately referred to committee, is authored by State Sen. Brian Hughes (R–Mineola), along with 12 fellow Republican senators. Hughes chairs the Senate State Affairs Committee, which hears election-related bills in the upper chamber.

Hughes’ bill addresses a range of election issues, including voter registration and voter roll maintenance, voting by mail procedures, security and oversight at polling places and counting stations, and civil penalties for election code violations.

More: https://texasscorecard.com/state/texas-lawmakers-file-major-election-integrity-bills/