AUSTIN, Texas — Texas Gov. Greg Abbott has announced that over 1 million names of ineligible voters have been removed from the state's voter rolls since he signed Senate Bill 1 into law in 2021.
The removed names include those of people who moved out of Texas, who died and who are not citizens, among other factors, and the governor's office said the removal process continues.
"Election integrity is essential to our democracy ... Illegal voting in Texas will never be tolerated. We will continue to actively safeguard Texans’ sacred right to vote while also aggressively protecting our elections from illegal voting," Abbott said in part.
Abbott said that the Secretary of State and county voter registrars have an "ongoing legal requirement" to review voter rolls, remove ineligible voters and refer any potential illegal voting to the Attorney General’s Office and local authorities.
The office said since Abbott signed SB 1 into law three years ago, the state has removed over 1 million people from the voter rolls, including:
- Over 6,500 noncitizens
- Over 470,000 dead people
- Over 6,000 people who have a felony conviction
- Over 463,000 voters on the suspense list
- Over 134,000 voters who have moved away from Texas
- Over 65,000 voters who failed to respond to a notice of examination
- Over 19,000 voters who requested to cancel their voter registration
The governor's office said that of the over 6,500 noncitizens removed from the voter rolls, approximately 1,930 have a voter history. The Secretary of State’s Office is in the process of sending all of those voter records to the Attorney General’s Office for investigation and "potential legal action."