The Department of Homeland Security appears to be issuing—or preparing to issue—subpoenas for voter registration records to counties across the state of Texas as it cracks down on illegal registration and voting.
According to reporting from The Texas Tribune, three counties have either received or been informed of imminent subpoenas, and DHS plans to issue subpoenas to all 254 counties in the state of Texas.
As previously reported by The Texas Scorecard, there have been cases of voters illegally registering—and even voting—in Harris County as recently as earlier this year. There are likely many such cases across the state of Texas, despite efforts to secure elections.
Unfortunately, even with Texas’ strict laws, it’s still fairly easy for a non-citizen to register to vote. According to Byron Fisher with the Texas Public Policy Foundation’s Election Protection Project: “You just say, ‘I’m a citizen.’ All you have to do is fill that out.” While lying on that form is tantamount to perjury, Fisher pointed out that for those who have already broken the law to get into the country, that’s not much of a deterrent.
He also called out a specific piece of federal law that actually makes it easier for people who are willing to lie on their registration forms to get registered. “The Help America Vote Act actually requires that if you don’t have either a Social Security number or a voter registration number, the state should just assign you a unique voter registration number and register you to vote anyway.”
Fisher pointed to this loophole as a prime example of why something like the SAVE Act is so important, saying that we need to prevent these illegal votes from ever being cast, rather than just punishing illegal voters after the fact.