The Texas Public Policy Foundation lauded the Texas State Senate’s bipartisan approval today of SB1509, by Senator Brandon Creighton, a key election integrity bill. After passing the Senate 19-12, the bill now heads to the House.
SB1509 addresses the fact that mail-in ballots can be too easily exploited by ballot traffickers in Texas. The commonsense bill that improves mail-in ballot integrity by requiring voters to provide their driver’s license or state ID card number or the last four digits of their Social Security number to apply for a mail-in ballot and when returning a mail-in ballot.
“SB1509, if signed into law by Gov. Greg Abbott, will go a long way to prevent ballot traffickers from easily exploiting the weaknesses in Texas’s election system,” said TPPF vice president Chuck DeVore who testified before the Texas Senate in favor of the bill, “Mail-in ballot use has gone from 1.8% of ballots cast in 2010 to about 9% in 2020. This measure will provide a form of voter ID similar to what Texans have already been using for years when they vote in person.”