AUSTIN, Texas — On Thursday, the Texas Senate State Affairs Committee heard hours of testimony on several election bills, including one that would impact all Texas voters.
Senate Bill 16 would require Texans to prove their citizenship before voting in state, local and presidential elections.
The bill would apply to new and existing voters who didn’t provide proof of citizenship when they registered. To register, Texans would need to show a U.S. Passport, birth certificate or naturalization papers. Voters who cannot verify their citizenship will only be eligible to vote in federal elections, except for the presidential race.
“Voting is a right and the duty of citizens. It is right that we offer foreigners who want to move to the U.S. to encourage them to become citizens,” Daniel Hunt, the State Republican Executive Committeeman for Senate District 3, said. “Anytime a noncitizen votes, it diminishes the vote of every citizen. This bill, Senate Bill 16, will put checks and guards against noncitizens being allowed to vote.”
Supporters of the bill say it is a matter of election security, while opponents call it a solution in search of a problem since noncitizen voting is already illegal and rarely happens. Some opponents testified that it is making a mountain out of a molehill.
“There are serious criminal penalties in place for noncitizens casting a vote in the state and this country,” David Weinberg with the Brennan Center for Justice said. “So, as a basic premise, this bill is not needed. We have systems in place to ensure people register our citizens to vote. What this bill does is it places a burden, and it may disenfranchise many Texas citizens.”
Last year, Gov. Greg Abbott announced Texas had removed more than 6,500 noncitizens from its voter rolls since 2021.
Under Senate Bill 16, authored by State Sen. Bryan Hughes (R-Mineola), voters who don’t provide proof of citizenship would be placed on a separate voter roll. They would be able to cast ballots in United States House and Senate races but not for President.
“The mound that this bill asks you to climb is not high. It’s not a big hurdle,” Ken Moore, who testified in favor of the bill, said. “It is very well worth our efforts to secure our elections, to ensure that only those here legally vote.”
The bill would also direct the Texas Secretary of State’s office to send counties data by the end of the year of voters who had not provided proof of citizenship.
If election officials aren’t able to confirm that a voter is a U.S. citizen, counties will notify people that they can only cast a “federally limited ballot,” unless they can provide proof of citizenship.
“If for some reason, at the point of registration, a registrant has failed to provide the required documentation when they go vote in person, which the bill requires them to do. They will be asked on site,” Gina Swoboda, the Chairwoman of the Arizona Republican Party, said. “This is the best opportunity for the registrant, who perhaps had missed notices in the mail and forgot that they didn’t have all the information. If they fail to provide proof of citizenship on-site. They will have six full days after election day to provide that documented proof of citizenship, in which case their entire ballot will be counted. Should they fail to provide such evidence, they will be restricted only to the U.S. Senate and the congressional race.”
The bill is modeled after Arizona’s system of split voter rolls, which has prompted lengthy legal fights that continue to this day.
In February, the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled part of Arizona’s law unconstitutional, though state lawmakers there have vowed to appeal. In 2013, the United States Supreme Court ruled that Arizona must allow residents without proof of citizenship to cast ballots in federal elections, which is where the idea of the federal list in the Texas bill comes from.
Hughes, an attorney, said he thinks Senate Bill 16 would hold up based on the current landscape of laws in other states and the Supreme Court.
“We believe Senate Bill 16 will work in allowing Texas to require proof of citizenship at the point of voter registration,” Hughes said. “Regardless of what system one uses to register to vote, proof of citizenship just makes sense.”
SB 16 would make it a felony for an election official to knowingly register a voter without verifying their citizenship. It would also direct the Texas Attorney General’s Office to investigate voters without proof of citizenship.
“The bill would overwhelm local counties, burden election officials, and cause unnecessary delays, potentially preventing voters from casting their ballots,” Victoria Sakata, who opposed the bill, said. “We should not be making voting harder. It should be an accessible right for all Texans and free from unwarranted obstacles.”
County registrars would be directed to use government databases to verify citizenship and notify applicants if they need to provide additional proof.
A voter who has previously provided proof or has been verified as a U.S. Citizen would not have to provide proof of citizenship to update or change one’s registration.
John Mattingly called it common sense legislation.
“Several critics have said that this will be expensive. You can’t put a price on securing liberty,” Mattingly said. “We want to make sure that citizens are voting, and even if there are high costs, as long as those costs are reasonable because I think that there is a cost-benefit analysis to be done, I think it weighs heavily in favor of this piece of legislation.”
Even if they don’t require proof of citizenship, states have processes in place to ensure only eligible citizens vote. When registering to vote, voters are asked to attest under penalty of perjury that they are citizens. There are also stiff penalties for noncitizens who try to vote, which could range from criminal charges to removal from the country.
Critics said the bill would disproportionately affect voters from historically marginalized groups because some may have trouble finding paper proof of U.S. citizenship.
“SB 16 would create an unnecessary barrier to voter registration that would disenfranchise hundreds of thousands of eligible Texas voters,” Jessica Hulett with VoteRiders said. “Our work reveals the assumptions underlying bills like SB 16 are fundamentally flawed. Many U.S. citizens do not have ready access to birth certificates, passports or naturalization papers.”
Hulett said as many as 1.3 million voting-age Texans may not have easy access to the documents, which would impact more Republicans than Democrats.
“It’s painful to see bills like these being put forth to this committee specifically because the intention behind the bill, as honorable as it is, quite frankly, makes a mountain out of a molehill,” Michael Mireles, a volunteer deputy registrar in Hidalgo County, said.
The committee did not take any action on SB 16 and left it pending in committee.
The committee also heard testimony on Senate Bill 76 by Sen. Bob Hall (R-Edgewood), which would eliminate the countywide polling place program. That allows voters to cast ballots at any polling location within their county. Getting rid of the program means voters must vote at an assigned polling place. More than a dozen Texas counties are fighting the potential change. They say the change could cost taxpayers millions of dollars and make voting more inconvenient. Supporters of the bill say it will increase transparency and decrease the chance of fraud.
The State Affairs Committee passed Senate Bill 8, which requires the sheriff of each Texas county with a population of 100,000 or more to request and enter into a federal immigration enforcement agreement with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). The bill allows sheriffs in smaller counties to enter into similar agreements voluntarily.
As part of the agreement, counties must dedicate funds and resources to enforcement operations and provide annual reports about the activities. SB 8 creates a grant program to help counties with less than 1 million residents with the cost of manpower, training or equipment needed as part of the agreement. The bill gives the Texas Attorney General the authority to take legal action against counties that don’t comply by Dec. 1, 2026. SB 8 now heads to the full Senate for consideration.