Blog: September Voting Updates
September 5, 2021
read time 5 min
All eyes have been on Texas as our state legislature reconvened in its second special session on July 8th to finish what many believe was unfinished business. With tensions running high and party lines drawn in the sand, many of us wish for the old days when legislators could debate, compromise and work towards serving all Texans.
In 2021, CTD’s goals were and continue to be:
- to mitigate the worst parts of any bill that created new barriers for the disability community, and
- to support amendments that would create better access to the polls.
Through the wins and losses in the 87th regular and both specials sessions, we played a vital role in many of the negotiations, while continually reinforcing that election measures lose any semblance of integrity once they interfere with the reasonable, necessary, and legally protected accommodations for voters with disabilities that have already been in place and working well.
So, after nine months of debate, dozens of hearings, long nights in the Capitol cafeteria, and countless meetings with legislators and their staf,f where did we land?
Provisions in 2021 Texas Elections Bills that Increase Voter Access
- Mail Ballot Tracking. A bill enacted during the regular session created a secure online system to allow voters to track the status of their mail ballot applications and mail ballots. Texas joins 44 other states that provide the ability for voters to track their ballots to ensure their vote counts.
- Mail Ballot Cure. SB 1 (Hughes), the omnibus elections bill passed in the 2nd special session, creates a procedure for election officials to notify voters of errors on their mail ballots and to provide them with an opportunity to cure the error so that their ballot counts. The cure language even allows voters to use the online tracking system referenced above to cure certain errors remotely. Texas joins 28 other states that provide voters notice of mail ballot issues and the ability to cure. CTD’s testimony on the importance of a strong cure process and the need for access to a remote cure process was mentioned by Sen. Bettencourt as he offered an amendment on the Senate floor to add the remote cure to the existing bill.
- Protection for Disability Accommodations. SB 1 (Hughes) contains a provision that was offered as an amendment by Rep. Bucy on the House floor, protecting the ability of voters with disabilities to request and obtain reasonable accommodations and modifications to voting procedures to which they are entitled under state and federal law. CTD had also been working with Rep. Leach on an accessible mail-in ballot amendment, which was pulled after the passage of Bucy's. We believe this amendment will also help give us the grounds to allow people access to using their signature stamp as a reasonable accommodation.
- SOS Voting Machine Accessibility Training Videos. Sen. Zaffirini was able to include a vital amendment to SB 1 (Hughes), referencing CTD’s testimony on the lack of training on the use of accessibility features found on the voting machines. Sen. Zaffirini’s amendment requires the Secretary of State to conduct a study regarding the implementation of educational programs, including the production and publication on the Secretary of State's website of instructional videos, to help voters with disabilities understand how to use voting systems used in Texas.
Mitigation of Restrictive Provisions in 2021 Texas Elections Bills
These provisions existed in at least one version of the proposed elections omnibus bills (HB 6 (Cain) / SB 7 (Hughes) in the regular session and SB 1 (Hughes) and HB 3 (Murr) in the special sessions), but have been favorably amended or are not present in the final version of the bill.
- Proving disability. Early versions of SB 7 (Hughes) would have required voters applying to vote by mail due to a disability to attest to the nature of their disability, potentially revealing confidential medical information just to be allowed to vote. Voters applying for mail ballots for all elections in a calendar year would have been required to attach documentation of their disability from their doctor or a government agency to the application. Both of these provisions were removed in later iterations of the bill.
- Individuals assisting voters required to show ID. Early versions of HB 6 (Cain) / SB 7 (Hughes) would have required individuals assisting voters at polling locations or driving voters for curbside voting to show acceptable voter ID to polling place officials. These provisions do not exist in the final version of SB 1 (Hughes).
- Poll watchers may video record voters in polling locations. Provisions in SB 7 (Hughes) would have allowed voters to record voters in the polling location. Voters receiving assistance were subject to being recorded even while at the voting station completing their ballot. Initially, the bill contained no safeguards on the distribution of images captured at a polling place. Later versions of SB 7 (Hughes) added such safeguards, and SB 1 (Hughes) removed the provisions authorizing video recording altogether.
- Felony prosecution for election officials altering election rules. HB 6 (Cain) contained a provision that would threaten any election official who altered or modified an election procedure, even to protect the health and safety of voters, with a state jail felony. The threat of felony prosecution for simply assisting voters would have likely had a chilling effect on election official recruitment. The felony provision was amended out of later versions of the omnibus.
You may be asking yourself, are we done yet? And, the best answer we can give you is, we don’t think so! There are already calls for a 3rd special session and more changes to our elections process in Texas, which will be Gov. Abbott's call.
