Gov. Greg Abbott takes aim at 'voter fraud' with elections bill -- including attempts to 'expand' voting

HOUSTON (KXAN) -- On Monday morning, Texas Gov. Greg Abbott announced plans for a new bill aimed at what he says is rampant voter fraud in the state -- and/or "unauthorized attempts to expand voting."

"One thing all of us should agree on is that we must have trust and confidence in the outcome of our elections," Abbott said. "The fact is, voter fraud does occur."

The governor said, however, he's not aware of any fraud that happened in Texas during the 2020 Election.

Abbott was joined by state Sen. Paul Bettencourt and Rep. Briscoe Cain at Bettencourt's Houston office, where the governor urged unity in support of Texas House Bill 6.

The governor said the issue isn't partisan, claiming former President Barack Obama worked to prosecute a "voter fraud scheme" in south Texas in 2014 where a man reportedly gave people cocaine in exchange for their vote. That though was related to a local school board election in Donna, Texas, not a statewide or national election.

Abbott cited the cocaine-for-votes school board example over the weekend to Fox News host Maria Bartiromo, where he claimed Democrats want to "protect ballot harvesting."

Abbott criticizes Houston's voting expansion in response to pandemic.

Abbott pointed to instances in Harris County where elections officials tried to broaden ways for people to vote -- including drive-thru voting centers -- in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. They also encouraged people to vote by mail. Abbott likened that to ballot harvesting.

"The [Harris County] Elections Clerk attempted to send unsolicited mail-in ballot applications to millions of voters, many of whom would not be eligible to vote by mail," Abbott said. "Election officials should be working to stop potential mail ballot fraud -- not facilitate it."

Abbott also slammed Harris County's curbside/drive-thru voting stations, which aimed to keep in-person voting contact to a minimum, saying this was "unauthorized expansion" because not all voters qualify for curbside voting.

"We must pass laws to prevent elections officials from jeopardizing the election process."

Gov. Greg Abbott, March 15

Texas Democrats say Abbott's calls for election integrity are 'misleading'

Texas Democrats say the governor is misleading voters to install fear.

“Despite holding one of the safest and most secure elections in the state’s history in 2020—thanks in no small part to expansions of vote-by-mail, early voting and secure ballot drop-boxes—Gov. Abbott is attempting to restrict these common-sense measures under the false premise of ‘election integrity,’" said MOVE Texas spokesperson Charlie Bonner. "Let’s be clear here: there are no widespread cases of voter fraud. That is a fact. Period."

MOVE Texas is a group formed in 2013 to increase election participation.

Democrats plan to hold a news conference at 1:30 p.m. KXAN will also live stream that on KXAN.com and on its station Facebook page.

Reason 'election integrity' has been partisan over the past year

There has been no evidence of widespread voter fraud that would have altered the final results of the presidential election, but former President Donald Trump and others have pushed that notion. Trump has repeatedly claimed that the election was stolen. Many of Texas' conservative leaders have supported that idea.

Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick put up a $1 million reward on Nov. 10 for evidence of fraud that led to an arrest and conviction. So far, Patrick has not paid out any of that money.

In December, Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton sued four battleground states and claimed the states made unconstitutional changes to their election laws. The conservative-leaning Supreme Court rejected that argument and refused to hear the case. In January, Paxton traveled to Washington, D.C. to take part in the "Stop the Steal" rallies. He later falsely blamed the Capitol riots on Antifa.

A common refrain from Democrats on Republican-led efforts to pass more restrictive voting laws is that the GOP is attempting to squelch voting rights rather than secure elections.

Bettencourt said the bill would make voting rules and timeframes more uniform, which he said doesn't infringe on voting rights. Cain echoed these thoughts, saying that rural voters and urban voters should have the same access.

Rural voters tend to vote for Republicans. Urban areas tend to back Democrats.

"The only form of voter suppression is when an illegitimate voter, an illegible voter, casts a ballot," said Cain. "When an ineligible voter casts their ballot, they're actually silencing the voice of an American citizen."

Poll finds 30% of Texans question U.S. elections

In a poll in February, our media partners at the Texas Tribune found that "a large majority of Texas voters think the state’s official election results are just fine, but 30% think national election results are 'very inaccurate.'"

"While 89% of Democratic voters said the U.S. results are accurate, 73% of Republican voters beg to differ, including a majority — 52% — who characterized the counting as 'very inaccurate.'"

So Abbott's emergency item and Sen. Bettencourt's bill makes sense as it is an issue very important to their base supporters, Republican voters.