After an initial attempt to pass a sweeping voter restriction bill was blocked by Democrats, Texas’s Governor Greg Abbot (R) has now signed into law Senate Bill 1111 modifying residency requirements. Democracy Docket had this legislation alert:
Governor Greg Abbott (R) signed Senate Bill 1111 on Wednesday. The bill, passed by the Republican-controlled state legislature at the end of their session last month, imposes new limits on what type of addresses voters can use to register to vote and allows county officials to require additional verification if they suspect a voter’s registered address is not where they reside.
The law states that voters cannot register to vote using any address where they do not live full-time — and that they “may not establish residence for the purpose of influencing the outcome of a certain election.” If a voter is suspected of registering with an invalid address, a city official can now require additional verification documents from the voter — but only a handful of residency documents are accepted, and none can be sent back to the county via a P.O. box. These arbitrary new barriers will restrict ballot access for voters who move around a lot, students and homeless voters who often utilize the P.O. boxes of churches and other organizations to register to vote. And, the provision that voters may not establish residence with the intent to vote adds unnecessary, vague and confusing restrictions for young and first-time voters who legally register in the place they attend school or where they have recently moved.
SB 1111 is one of many smaller voter suppression bills that Texas Republicans pushed through as they continue to fight for Senate Bill 7, an omnibus suppression bill that was blocked by a Democratic walkout last month.
Visit the legislation alert page on Democracy Docket here. Read the full article here. Also, see related Democracy Chronicles articles like those on the Voter Access, Voter Turnout, or even seen our section on American Democracy.
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