Texas governor announces removal of over a million ineligible voters from rolls; activists question data

Texas governor Greg Abbott has announced the removal of over 1 million people from its voter rolls since 2021, including people who moved out-of-state, are deceased, and are potential noncitizens. However, representatives from American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) in Texas have questioned the accuracy of the data presented by Abbott claiming it lacks context and is only being used by the state to intimidate voters.

The effort to maintain the accuracy of voter rolls follows the passage of Senate Bill 1 in 2021, which increased the penalty for lying while registering to vote to a state jail felony and mandated random audits of county election offices every two years by the Secretary of State.

The statement from Abbott's office, later reiterated by a social media post by the governor himself, claims that the removed names, which allegedly includes 6,500 potential noncitizens, are being passed on to the attorney general's office for possible criminal charges:

"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."

The governor's announcement comes five years after a botched attempt in 2019 to purge up to 100,000 suspected noncitizen voters which led to a settlement with voting rights organizations setting parameters for future cleanups.

One of those organizations, the ACLU of Texas, is also one of the most vocal opposers to the latest announcement, saying it has unresolved questions about the accuracy of the state's latest data because the organization has not been allowed to review it. Ashley Harris, attorney for the ACLU of Texas, stated her concerns to the Houston Chronicle:

"Gov. Abbott's recent announcement about voter registration list maintenance lacks context, and instead points to routine voter list maintenance that does not provide evidence of wrongdoing by any voter. Any attempts to point to this data as evidence of criminal wrongdoing is part of a pattern of voter intimidation and suppression by the state of Texas and certain elected officials."