Texas Governor Greg Abbott has signed Senate Bill 1, a bill dealing with election integrity, into law. Abbott traveled about 230 miles from Austin to Tyler Tuesday to sign the bill in the district of Senator Bryan Hughes, the author of the bill.
"The Texas law, it does make it easier than ever before for anybody to cast a ballot," Abbott says. "It does also, however, make sure it is harder for people to cheat at the ballot box."
"In Longview, governor, as you know, we have a county commissioner under indictment for mail ballot fraud," Hughes says. "Anybody who tells you there's no voter fraud in Texas is telling you a very big lie."
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Gregg County Commissioner Shannon Brown was arrested along with three others last year. Brown was charged with 23 felonies, including organized election fraud, for a "vote harvesting" case in which prosecutors say they applied for mail-in ballots, claiming a voter was disabled without that voter's knowledge.
Brown is now awaiting trial.
The law forbids 24-hour voting locations and drive-thru voting; curbside voting is limited to those unable to go inside. Counties are also forbidden from sending unsolicited vote-by-mail applications.
The measure also requires polling places to stay open an extra hour during early voting and gives people submitting and absentee ballot a way to correct an error or verify their signature.
Lieutenant Governor Dan Patrick says voter turnout in Texas has increased more than any other state since Texas passed a photo ID requirement in 2011.
"You hear the media, the left-wing media, you hear the Democrats say it's tough to vote in Texas. Well, that's just a lie," Patrick says.
Patrick says voter turnout has increased 40% over the past ten years.
"I don't want to hear this nonsense and the lies we continually hear that it's tough to vote in Texas," he says. "Texas turns out voters because they have confidence our elections are always going to be fair."
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Federal lawsuits to block the law have been filed in Austin and San Antonio saying the law violates free speech and "intentionally discriminates against Texas minority voters."
"I'd be astonished if a law like this was not challenged in court," Abbott says. "We've seen it happen whenever laws like this are passed. The first thing the Democrats do is run to the courthouse and try to challenge it. I feel extremely confident when this law makes it through the litigation phase, it will be upheld in the court of law because of exactly what we've said: it does make it easier for people to go vote."
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