HOUSTON (Talk1370.com) -- Texas Gov. Greg Abbott took aim Monday at what he called "rampant" voter fraud, promoting several pieces of legislation that authors say will enhance election integrity in the state and curb "unauthorized attempts" to expand voting by election officials.
Abbott was joined by State Sen. Paul Bettencourt (R-Houston) and State Rep. Briscoe Cain (R-Deer Park) for the Monday morning press conference.
"Our objective in Texas is to ensure that every eligible voter gets to vote and that only eligible ballots are counted," Abbott said. "In the 2020 election, we witnessed actions throughout our state that could risk the integrity of our elections and enable voter fraud, which is why I made election integrity an emergency item this session."
Abbott is supporting House Bill 6 and the related Senate Bill 7, two omnibus bills that contain a number of election procedures and ballot security measures that advocates have called as needed reforms.
In a release announcing the filing of HB6 on Friday, Cain called the bill an exercise of the Legislature's authority to preserve the purity of the ballot box. "The idea that our elections are free from vote dilution is demonstrably false, and we must root out and penalize every attempt to delegitimize our votes," Cain said. "Every Texan from every background must have the security and trust that their vote matters. it is our duty to get this right, and we will get this right."
During the press conference, Abbott pointed out several Harris County efforts to expand voting accessibility during the pandemic, deeming those efforts as "facilitating" voter fraud. “The [Harris County] Elections Clerk attempted to send unsolicited mail-in ballot applications to millions of voters, many of whom would not be eligible to vote by mail,” Abbott said. “Election officials should be working to stop potential mail ballot fraud — not facilitate it.”