Legislative efforts to improve election integrity should be focused on improving identification safeguards for mail-in ballots and voter list maintenance.

Key points:

  • The quintupling of mail-in ballots in Texas since 2012 to one million likely increases the threat to election integrity posed by poorly maintained voter lists and weak voter verification.
  • Texas voter ID laws do not apply to by-mail voting, which instead relies on signature validation.
  • Poorly maintained voter lists are estimated to include about 75,000 noncitizens, deceased voters, and people who have moved out of state.
  • Texas should increase efforts to identify and remove noncitizens from the voter lists.
  • Texas should enhance mail-in ballot security by improving voter verification of those ballots.