AUSTIN, Texas (CN) — The Texas Senate passed a bill along party lines Tuesday night that would make it easier for elections to be audited. Senate Bill 47 allows local elected officials, judges, candidates and leaders of political parties to demand audits of future election results — and request audits of the 2020 general election results, as well.
Since former President Donald Trump lost that election, Texas state leaders have been busy churning out bills in an attempt to reshape how elections are conducted in the state.
Lawmakers in Austin are currently in the middle of a third special session called by Governor Greg Abbott. The session was primarily called to redraw the state's political maps with recently released census data. And because Abbott did not add an election auditing bill on the agenda for the special session, SB 47 cannot reach final passage unless he modifies the slate.
If SB 47 does pass, it will allow political leaders to ask the Texas Secretary of State to review "election irregularities." The bill has the support of the former president, who wrote an open letter to Abbott last month asking him to support the bill. Shortly afterwards, the Texas Secretary of State's office announced it would audit the election results of the state's four largest counties. Trump won the state over President Joe Biden by more than 600,000 votes.
An entire section of SB 47 applies to state or county chairs of political parties' ability to request an audit of 2020 election results. The bill funds any 2020 audits as well as future audits with taxpayer dollars.
Under the bill, if violations are found during an audit, the Secretary of State is directed to notify county clerk's to remedy the issues or face a fine of $500 for each violation.
State Senator Paul Bettencourt, a Republican from Houston who filed the bill, described it as the right thing to do to restore public confidence in elections.
But Bettencourt, who is known as a “money man” by his colleagues in the state Senate, drew criticism from Democrats who argued the bill would waste money and further push unsubstantiated claims that the 2020 election was rife with fraud.
During public testimony on SB 47, Stephanie Gomez, associate director of pro-democracy group Common Cause Texas, told lawmakers that the bill will "inflame suspicion, and keeps alive the hope of those chasing conspiracy theories that led [people] to attack our capitol less than a year ago."
Democratic senators questioned the purpose of the bill during a debate Tuesday evening. They see SB 47 as just another attempt to cast doubt on the 2020 election and the election process in the state of Texas. Critics of this bill and other bills in the state that restrict voting access believe these are motivated by Republican lawmakers’ desire to solidify their position and appease Trump and his hardline supporters who believe, without evidence to back up their allegations, that the election was stolen.
Senators cited election officials at the Texas Secretary of State’s office who have in testimony on multiple pieces of legislation described the 2020 election as “smooth and secure," and brought up the audit of election results in Maricopa County, Arizona, which did not reveal widespread voter fraud or evidence of manipulation as alleged by Trump and supporters.
Senator Chuy Hinojosa, a Democrat from McAllen, asked Bettencourt how the audits described in the bill differ from the investigation in Arizona. “This is not an Arizona-style audit,” said Bettencourt.
Instead of employing a third-party private company to conduct an audit, the process would be handled by the Secretary of State. Bettencourt said this would save money. However, one way the procedures are similar in that the audits outlined in SB 47 will be done by hand and not solely by an electronic recount.
“I don’t want Texas to become the laughing stock of the nation the way Arizona has,” Hinojosa said.
Senate Bill 47 is now headed to the Texas House, whose Republican members have in the past worked to establish an audit of the 2020 election.
Election integrity has become a core issue for Republican lawmakers and voters in Texas since the 2020 election. Abbott has made it a priority, calling now three special legislative sessions for lawmakers to address the subject. During the second called session, Republicans successfully passed a restrictive voting bill that banned 24-hour and drive-through voting and set new identification requirements for people applying to vote by mail.
Voting rights activists in the state and across the country see the measures as a blatant attempt to disenfranchise communities of color, which largely vote for Democrats. Civil rights groups have challenged the law in federal court and the passage of the bill also renewed calls on the U.S. Senate to pass voting rights legislation that would invalidate not only it but and similar laws passed in Florida and Georgia.
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