Texas Senate revives effort to make illegal voting a felony
Republican leaders in the Texas Senate are intent on raising the penalty for voting illegally from a misdemeanor to a second-degree felony, despite the lack of evidence of widespread voter fraud in Texas. The effort comes nearly two years after the Legislature passed a sweeping voting bill, Senate Bill 1, that lowered the penalties for such crimes to a misdemeanor — and then almost immediately began discussing raising them back.
Senate Bill 2, filed Tuesday by state Sen. Bryan Hughes, R-Mineola, would also change the standard for determining someone’s intent for illegal voting, according to policy experts. The law as enacted under SB 1 says a person commits a crime if they “knowingly or intentionally” vote or attempt to vote in an election in which the person “knows they’re not eligible” to vote. Hughes’ new bill changes that language so that anyone who votes or attempts to vote in an election in which “the person knows of a particular circumstance that makes the person not eligible to vote” could face charges.
That means that rather than having to prove beyond a reasonable doubt that the voter knew they were casting their ballot unlawfully, prosecutors would only need to show beyond a reasonable doubt that the voter knew of the circumstance that made them ineligible to vote, said James Slattery, senior supervising legislative attorney with the Texas Civil Rights Project.
For example, if a voter knew they were not a U.S. citizen but did not know they were ineligible to vote, they could still be prosecuted. Or if someone knew they had been convicted of felony, were on parole and did not know they were not eligible to vote.
“This is a very nasty and very potentially consequential provision,” Slattery said. “That is why this intent requirement exists, because it’s not fair for people to go to jail for good-faith mistakes.”
https://www.texastribune.org/2023/02/23/voter-fraud-felony-texas/
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