Texas Takes Another Step to Outlaw Noncitizen Voting

Texas Gov. Greg Abbott signed legislation this week that advances an effort to prevent noncitizens from voting in the Lone Star State.

“I just signed off on a joint resolution to make it crystal clear under the Texas Constitution that if you are not a citizen of the United States of America, you are not allowed to vote in Texas,” the governor said in a video posted on X Monday.

The move comes after an effort that began in January when Republican State Senator Brian Birdwell proposed a constitutional amendment clarifying that voters in Texas elections must be citizens of the U.S.

Prior to the resolution, the constitution banned people under the age of 18, the mentally incompetent and convicted felons from voting in elections, Fox News reported. The amendment proposes adding “persons who are not citizens of the United States.”

Both Texas legislative bodies approved the measure earlier this year. Abbot formalized the resolution by signing it on Monday. But to be included in the state constitution, Texas citizens will have to vote on it in November.

The action comes on the heels of President Donald Trump’s national effort to clean up voter rolls. As Breitbart News reported, the president signed an executive order in March that required documented proof of citizenship to vote.

However, in response to lawsuits, last month a federal judge in Washington, D.C. blocked the order, saying President Trump had overstepped his authority.

U.S. District Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly, a Clinton-appointee, wrote in her order:

Our Constitution entrusts Congress and the States — not the President — with the authority to regulate federal elections. Consistent with that allocation of power, Congress is currently debating legislation that would affect many of the changes the President purports to order. No statutory delegation of authority to the Executive Branch permits the President to short-circuit Congress’s deliberative process by executive order.

That lawsuit, however, hasn’t stopped measures underway in many states besides Texas. According to the Voting Rights Lab, 25 states, including the Lone Star State, are working on legislation requiring proof of citizenship.

Fifteen state constitutions already prohibit non-citizen voting.