Redistricting – Article III, Section 28, of the Texas Constitution requires the legislature to apportion state senate and house districts at its first regular session following the publication of the U.S. decennial census. However, the publication of the 2020 census data was delayed until after the 2021 regular legislative session. During the 87th Legislature, 3rd Called Session, lawmakers adopted district maps for the Texas Senate and House of Representatives, U.S. Congress, and the State Board of Education, but the 88th Legislature, Regular Session, is the first regular session following the publication of the 2020 federal census. HB 1000 seeks to ensure that the legislature fulfills its constitutional duty of apportionment by ratifying the Texas House of Representatives district maps passed in 2021
- HB 1000 (Darby) Relating to the composition of districts for the election of members of the Texas House of Representatives
- SB 375 (Huffman) Relating to the composition of districts for the election of members of the Texas Senate
- HB 1000 & SB 375 passed both chambers and are heading to the Governor’s desk
SB 1070 (Hughes) Relating to the interstate voter registration crosscheck program
- would allow Texas to withdraw from the Electronic Registration Information Center, a multistate program for checking and cleaning voter rolls, and the Secretary of State can either:
- cooperate with other states and jurisdictions to develop systems to compare voters, voter history, and voter registration lists to identify voters who had been convicted of a felony or who were registered to vote in more than one state, as well as voters whose addresses had changed; or
- identify and contract with the provider of a private sector data system to identify voters whose addresses had changed, who were registered to vote in more than one state, who were deceased, or who were not eligible to vote for another reason, including a felony conviction
- A private sector data system would be required to demonstrate an ability to work with registered voter identification and matching systems, to comply with the Help America Vote Act as well as the National Voter Registration Act, and to cost less than $100,000 to begin operations
- SB 1070 passed both chambers and is heading to the Governor’s desk
SB 1933 (Bettencourt) Relating to certain oversight procedures of the state over county elections
- Would give the secretary of state the authority to intervene, investigate, provide administrative oversight, and suspend or terminate a county election administrator, in a county with a population over 4 million
- SB 1933 passed both chambers and is heading to the Governor’s desk
SB 1750 (Bettencourt) Relating to abolishing the county elections administrator position in certain counties
- Abolishing the position of county elections administrator in a county with a population of more than 3.5 million and transferring the administrator’s powers and duties to the county tax assessor-collector and county clerk, which are elected positions
- SB 1750 passed both chambers and is heading to the Governor’s desk
HB 3159 (Leach) Relating to the use of an accessible absentee mail system by certain voters
- Allows for accessible absentee ballots for voters with disabilities
- This Act takes effect September 1, 2023
- HB 3159 passed both chambers and is heading to the Governor’s desk
SB 1661 (Hughes) Relating to a ballot scan system used in a central counting station
- Prohibits a central counting station from purchasing or using a ballot scanner unless that scanner is only capable of using a storage device, such as a flash drive, that can only be used once
- This would ensure that the data storage device cannot be overridden or have the data changed once the data is entered so that iIf the device’s data is changed, then the device shall be unreadable
- This Act takes effect September 1, 2023
- SB 1661 passed both chambers and is heading to the Governor’s desk
SB 477 (Zaffirini) Relating to accommodating voters with a disability
- The bill provides for voters with disabilities to be given voting order priority, reserved parking for curbside voting at each polling place, the online posting of available procedures and accommodations, and the posting of the official application form for an early voting ballot by mail that can be completed online before printing
- This Act takes effect immediately
- SB 477 passed both chambers and is heading to the Governor’s desk