Today, the Texas Public Policy Foundation and a coalition of conservative groups called on Texas Gov. Greg Abbott, Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick and House Speaker Dade Phelan to reform the Texas elections system and restore confidence in this vital institution.

“Texas stands at a crossroads it has not faced, perhaps since its founding, and inaction on election policy would dangerously distort our free and fair system of elections,” the coalition write. “We the undersigned believe that the Texas Legislature should enact reforms that fix the vulnerabilities in our system, count only legal votes, end the trafficking and manipulation of our vote-by-mail system, and, finally, strengthen the authority of the Secretary of State to prevent abuse by local officials. If the state Legislature does not act now, the institution governing our most valuable rights will become less secure, more corrupt, and election integrity will be compromised forever for all voters.”

The coalition is calling for four specific reforms. Texas must:

  • Verify that only eligible voters can register and require regular audits of voter lists to ensure they only include eligible voters.
  • Make vote-by-mail only available to citizens who are elderly, disabled, away from their primary residence for work or school, or serving in the military.
  • Require the Secretary of State to approve all changes to elections, such as the method of collecting and counting votes. And allow the Secretary of State to remove any election officials that participate in any efforts to defraud the election.
  • Protect elections by prohibiting private funds from being used to supplement local elections administration budgets to selectively boost turnout.

The letter is signed Kevin Roberts, Executive Director of TPPF; Tarren Bragdon, President and CEO of the Foundation for Government Accountability; Jessica Anderson, Executive Director of Heritage Action for America; Doug Deason, President of the Deason Foundation; Paul Hodson and Tamara Colbert, Co-Founders of Grassroots Gold, LLC; Robin Lennon, President and Co-Founder of the Kingwood Tea Party; Jim Lennon, Director and Co-Founder of the Kingwood Tea Party; Jennifer Haar, President of the Republican Women’s Club of Katy; and Matt Long, President of the Fredericksburg Tea Party.

View the letter, click here.

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