This text was initially revealed by Votebeat, a nonprofit information group overlaying native election administration and voting entry. Join Votebeat Texas’ free e-newsletter right here.
County election officers investigating the eligibility of two,724 Texas voters flagged as potential noncitizens have to this point discovered that a whole lot of the voters registered by way of the state Division of Public Security, which requires proof of citizenship from anybody registering to vote whereas acquiring a driver’s license or state ID.
DPS retains copies of the proof of citizenship that registrants present, comparable to beginning certificates or passports. The company additionally retains copies of proof of lawful presence within the U.S., comparable to inexperienced playing cards, offered by immigrants.
However the Texas Secretary of State’s Workplace informed Votebeat and the Texas Tribune it didn’t test the voters flagged as potential noncitizens towards DPS’ data earlier than sending the checklist to county election officers to confirm citizenship.
And at the least one county election official has requested Texas Secretary of State Jane Nelson and DPS for assist checking DPS’ data however has but to acquire entry to them, in keeping with paperwork obtained by Votebeat by way of a public data request and an interview.
When Celia Israel, who oversees voter registration for Travis County, requested the state for assist figuring out voters’ citizenship, Nelson’s workplace directed her to DPS, in keeping with a letter Israel despatched Nelson’s workplace final month. However that company stated it couldn’t assist her straight, citing state legislation, data present.
Israel then wrote to Nelson and DPS officers, asking for assist acquiring the data. Nelson responded to Israel Nov. 21 saying her workplace would “proceed collaborating” with DPS.
Nelson’s workplace didn’t reply to a request for remark from Votebeat Monday asking whether or not it will search to acquire DPS’ proof-of-citizenship data. However on Monday, DPS responded to a request for remark from Votebeat and stated it had “lately obtained” a request from Nelson’s workplace for info on 97 individuals — additionally the variety of potential noncitizens the state had requested Travis County to analyze. The company didn’t verify whether or not the request involved these voters.
In an interview with Votebeat on Monday, Israel stated she believes officers have a accountability to test that knowledge earlier than putting a burden on voters. “These are instruments which are at our disposal to make sure accuracy, and I feel it’s our accountability to make use of these instruments earlier than we ask a voter to reveal citizenship,” she stated.
SAVE flagged a number of voters who registered at DPS
State officers generated the checklist of potential noncitizens by checking the state’s voter roll — greater than 18 million registered voters — towards a federal database used to confirm citizenship. The Trump administration overhauled the database, generally known as SAVE, this 12 months, making the database free for states to make use of and simpler to look.
However consultants and election officers have raised issues in regards to the SAVE database’s accuracy and reliability, and advocacy teams have filed a federal lawsuit difficult the modifications and the way SAVE is getting used.
The Texas Secretary of State’s Workplace in October forwarded the outcomes of the SAVE checkto county election officers and instructed them to analyze the eligibility of the flagged voters.
Votebeat contacted 24 counties concerning the outcomes of their investigations, and counties that responded stated they’ve to this point collectively confirmed the citizenship of 16 voters.
A number of counties additionally reported vital numbers of voters who registered through DPS. In Collin County, 59 of the 109 individuals flagged by the state had executed so. In Bexar County, the state flagged 201 voters; 39 had registered at DPS. And in Brazoria County, practically half of the 48 flagged had registered at DPS.
In Denton County, the state flagged 84 registered voters. Frank Phillips, the county’s election administrator, informed Votebeat that 12 of the flagged voters have confirmed their citizenship. Of the remaining flagged voters, 14 had been registered by county officers in error, despite the fact that they’d disclosed they had been noncitizens and ineligible on the voter registration kind. None of these people had voted, and their registrations have been canceled, he stated.
Phillips stated 37 of the flagged voters registered through DPS. Phillips additionally confirmed that the county has now canceled the registrations of 58 flagged voters who both failed to answer the county’s notices or had the notices returned as undeliverable. Underneath state legislation, county officers should instantly restore the registrations if the voters later present proof of citizenship, even when they accomplish that on the polls on Election Day.
State officers need counties to analyze matches
In her response to Israel’s letter, Nelson stated the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Providers’ SAVE database “is probably the most present and correct knowledge set out there to states in relation to figuring out a voter’s citizenship.” Nelson stated her workplace searched the SAVE database utilizing voters’ first names, final names, dates of beginning, and full Social Safety numbers.
“Though the information we obtained from SAVE is taken into account a robust match, we directed counties to deal with them as weak matches so as to be sure that counties performed their very own investigation,” Nelson wrote, in keeping with a duplicate of her letter obtained by Votebeat.
Alicia Pierce, a spokeswoman for the Texas Secretary of State’s Workplace, stated an instance of a robust match that will end in county officers eradicating somebody from the rolls with out additional investigation or discover can be a confirmed demise document. In distinction, she stated, in instructing the counties to deal with the SAVE outcomes as weak matches, the state is guaranteeing additional investigation earlier than voters’ registrations are canceled.
Texas is considered one of greater than two dozen states, together with Alabama, Louisiana, and North Carolina, utilizing or planning to make use of the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Providers’ overhauled SAVE database to test voters’ eligibility. The USCIS didn’t instantly reply to a request for remark.
Texas has struggled to determine noncitizens earlier than
Yearly, thousands and thousands of Texans register to vote or replace their voter registration info whereas acquiring a driver’s license or ID at DPS. In 2024, 3 million individuals registered to vote by way of the company.
DPS started requiring proof of citizenship and lawful presence to acquire a driver’s license or state ID starting in 2008. In 2011, Texas legislators made the requirement state legislation.
Israel and different election officers have raised issues in regards to the accuracy of the checklist of potential noncitizens forwarded by the Texas Secretary of State, citing points within the wake of the state’s previous makes an attempt to flag noncitizens on the voter rolls.
Final 12 months, months earlier than the November 2024 election, Gov. Greg Abbott introduced that 6,500 noncitizens had been faraway from Texas voter rolls. A joint investigation by Votebeat, The Texas Tribune, and ProPublica later discovered Abbott’s numbers had been inflated and, in some situations, improper.
In 2019, the Secretary of State’s Workplace introduced that it had recognized 95,000 registered voters as potential noncitizens and stated that greater than half of them had beforehand forged ballots. However most of the voters in query turned out to be naturalized residents flagged as a result of outdated knowledge, and the state finally settled a associated lawsuit by agreeing to new procedures.
These new procedures, which had been codified into legislation in 2021 by way of the sweeping Senate Invoice 1, require that DPS share knowledge month-to-month with the Texas Secretary of State’s Workplace in reference to people who offered proof that they weren’t U.S. residents — comparable to a inexperienced card or work visa — when acquiring a driver’s license or state ID.
State officers run that knowledge towards the voter roll and determine people “who registered to vote earlier than they offered paperwork at a DPS workplace indicating their non-citizenship,” in keeping with a 2021 advisory from the workplace to counties.
Natalia Contreras is a reporter for Votebeat in partnership with The Texas Tribune. She is predicated in Corpus Christi. Contact Natalia at ncontreras@votebeat.org.
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