AUSTIN — Nearly 25,000 ballots were rejected across the state for noncompliance with new Texas voting law, the Texas Secretary of State Office announced Wednesday.
During the last legislative session, GOP-lead efforts to reduce the occurrence of already rare fraudulent voting resulted in the rejection of 24,636 voters' ballots submitted by mail, data shows.
According to state data provided by counties, those ballots include 14,281 Democratic ballots and 10,355 Republican ballots. This is a rejection rate of about 12.4%, up from 1% in 2020.
“Not surprisingly, Texas and AG Paxton are trying to weaken federal voting protections even further,” said state Rep. Erin Zwiener, D-Driftwood, in a tweet. “What’s happening in Texas proves we still need the Voting Rights Act.”
The new law requires Texans voting by mail to include their Texas ID number or Social Security number on their mail-in ballot applications and ballot carrier envelope. Should that number not also match with the ID listed in the voter registration database, the ballot is rejected.
The rejected ballots from the March primaries proved to be one of the first real-world results the new law could have on the state’s elections.
AARP Texas Director Tina Tran called the revelation “deeply troubling.”
“Ballot rejections of this proportion could significantly swing the outcomes of state and local elections,” Tran said. “These rejections of ballots also could be a mere tip of the iceberg of problems faced at the polls, as there have also been reports of widespread rejections of ballot applications.”
Tran added that with the primary runoff election approaching and the state’s general election scheduled for the fall, “it is imperative that state and local election officials work extraordinarily hard and fast to better communicate new identification rules to voters.”
“Lessons must be learned to prevent more voter disenfranchisement in the upcoming elections,” Tran said.
Grace Chimene, president of the League of Women Voters of Texas, said the new law hit older voters and voters with disabilities particularly hard. And in Harris County, older Black voters were especially impacted by the legislation, Chimene said.
"This law is a throwback to the poll taxes of the Jim Crow era," Chimene said. "Texas is one of many states that is going backward in ensuring the right to vote."
Chimene added that the League of Women Voters of Texas and other voting rights organizations warned the Texas Legislature that the law would have negative consequences for voter access in our state, to which came to fruition.
"The new election law caused heart-breaking confusion among voters in the 2022 primary elections," Chimene said. "Ensuring a safe and secure election while providing voters with the information they need to participate fully in our democracy should be a priority for the Texas Legislature, the Texas Secretary of State and county election officials."
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