AUSTIN, Texas (KWTX) – Governor Greg Abbott announced on August 26 that more than one million illegal voters in Texas have been purged from the state’s voter rolls since Senate Bill 1 took effect.

The removal process, which began in 2021 with the passage of Senate Bill 1, has removed illegitimate voters from the Texas system for a variety of reasons:

• Over 6,500 voters were removed from the constituency because they did not have citizenship
• Over 6,000 voters were disqualified because of a felony conviction
• Over 457,000 voters were removed from the register because of their death
• Over 463,000 voters were removed because they were on the suspense list
• Over 134,000 voters were removed due to address changes
• Over 65,000 voters were removed from the register because they did not respond to an audit notice
• Over 19,000 voters were removed from voter registration because they requested cancellation of their registration

Of the 6,500 voters removed from the voter rolls because they were not U.S. citizens, approximately 1,930 were found to have previously voted. The Secretary of State’s office is in the process of sending these records to the Attorney General’s office for further investigation and possible prosecution.

“Election integrity is critical to our democracy,” said Governor Abbott.

“I signed the nation’s strongest election legislation to protect the right to vote and crack down on illegal voting. Illegal voting will never be tolerated in Texas. We will continue to actively protect Texans’ sacred right to vote while aggressively protecting our elections from illegal voting.”

More information from Governor Abbott’s office on voting laws passed in Texas:

To more effectively combat illegal voting, Governor Abbott signed House Bill 1243 last year, which increases the penalty for illegal voting, including noncitizen voting, to a second-degree felony.

In 2021, Governor Abbott signed Senate Bills 1, Senate Bills 1113, and House Bill 574. Senate Bill 1 made lying on voter registration a state prison crime, criminalized ballot harvesting, required the Secretary of State to conduct random election audits every two years, banned the distribution of unsolicited absentee ballot applications and ballots, and required identification for absentee ballots. Senate Bill 1113 authorized the Secretary of State to withhold funds from counties that fail to remove noncitizens from their voter rolls. House Bill 574 made it a second-degree crime to knowingly count invalid votes or refuse to count valid votes.

In 2017, the governor signed Senate Bill 5, which increased penalties for poll workers who knowingly allow noncitizens and other ineligible voters to vote.

MORE NEWS FROM GOV. ABBOTT: Gov. Abbott says he has votes to pass school voucher bill

All rights reserved.