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Last month, Gov. Greg Abbott signed a bill into law that supporters say is a positive step in addressing election integrity and transparency issues that will boost Texan confidence in future elections.
Senate Bill 1111, sponsored by state Sen. Paul Bettencourt (R-Houston), prohibits citizens from registering to vote using post office boxes rather than personal home addresses.
Bettencourt told Houston Daily that he wrote and sponsored the bill because, as far back as the 2018 election, 8,000 voters in Harris County alone registered to vote with P.O. boxes. After the 2020 presidential election, the number had fallen to 4,800.
The Voting Rights Project claims that more fraud occurs in absentee ballots and voter registration than any other category. The Pew Center on the States adds approximately 24 million voter registrations, or one out of every eight voter registrations, were inaccurate or invalid in 2012.
"The problem is that, while we can use private P.O. boxes as mailing addresses, you can't use it as a physical address because it's an impossible address," he said. "Nobody can live within a two-by-three-inch P.O. box, and really it keeps people from moving from to district to district, which addresses the question of why home addresses in an election matter."
Houston Public Media reported that the bill would require all voters to submit documents that prove they actually live at the address in which they registered. This submission will be prompted by a confirmation request from the registrar.
The legislation, the senator said, protects the integrity of a voter's role. He explained that the use of P.O. boxes on a voter registration card is problematic because voters can then cast ballots for legislative, municipal, city and county elections without living in that district.
The Honest Elections Project polled voters and found that 64% of voters, including black (51%) and Hispanic (66%) voters, as well as urban (59%) and independent (61%) voters, want to increase voting safeguards that mitigate fraud.
According to The Center Square, Bettencourt said after filing SB 1111 that the November 2020 election was rife with transparency and integrity shortcomings.
"The integrity of the voter roll is paramount to the entire electoral process and we must restore confidence in the voter roll for future elections for all Texans," Bettencourt said.
The bill was signed into law by Abbott on June 16 and is now in effect. The bill passed the House 81-65 and saw all Republican sponsorship.
"I think this will restore voter confidence because I have had tremendous feedback from folks about this issue," Bettencourt said, "and [constituents] just don't think anyone should be able to register on the head of a pin, much less a P.O. box.
"It is critical to future elections that we have a voter roll with integrity so all Texans can trust the outcome," he said.
According to Heritage Foundation data, only 1,328 cases of voter fraud have been discovered nationwide in recent years, resulting in 1,143 convictions. From 2015 to 2020, the Texas AG office received less than 200 voter fraud complaints, according to a KHOU investigative report, while extensive U.S. Justice Department investigations under former President Trump in the 2020 elections uncovered no evidence of widespread voter fraud.