Sen. Bryan Hughes discusses Senate Bill 1

TYLER – Governor Gregg Abbott said that more than 1 million illegitimate voters have been removed from the state’s voter roll, since the signing of Senate Bill 1 in 2021. Our news partner KETK is reporting that Senator Bryan Hughes, the author of the bill and Tyler’s state senator, said the people who are removed are people that have died, moved away and are non-US citizens. Integrity in Texas elections has been the priority for Senate Bill One over the past two years.

Hughes guaranteed that people are not taken off without reason and there is a process to find out who is ineligible. If the voter has moved, a voter registration card is sent to both addresses on file to confirm their residency, if not they get moved to the suspense list.

Some Democrats believe the changes are going too far.

“We want elections in Texas to be where it’s easy to vote and hard to cheat,” said Hughes. “There’s going to be winners and losers and we accept the results. But it’s easier to do that when we all know, all sides, that the election is fair,” said Hughes.

“The DPS compare its database with the Secretary of State every month to make sure folks are not registered to vote who have passed away, are not citizens, are ineligible or have moved, so cleaning up our voter rolls is obviously really important,” said Hughes.

“There’s this false narrative that there’s all these undocumented folks that are registering to vote, that our election system somehow is rigged, which it’s not,” said Rep. Eddie Morales, (D) Eagle Pass.

Senator Hughes disagreed and said that he was proved right after being sued two years ago.

“The courts have ruled that Senate Bill One is fair, is constitutional, and it follows the law,” said Hughes.

The bill also rules ballot harvesting a felony, gives poll watchers more access to the election process and extends early voting hours.
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“It’s a real problem when folks come to your door and claim to be from the government or try to mislead you and try to get your ballot by mail or make you sign something so they can get your ballot by mail. We made that a felony,” said Hughes.

Hughes added that if on election day a workers says you are not on the list, they will offer you a provisional ballot to cast your vote. After that, you can find out what happened and show the necessary paperwork so you won’t get turned away.

The last day to register to vote in Oct. 7.