A recent report from the Texas Secretary of State says more than 95,000 of the state’s registered voters may not be U.S. citizens, and that more than half have voted in local elections.
Now, the state must try to verify or refute the report, which will involve sending the report’s findings to county voter registrar’s office.
Nueces County voter registrar Kevin Kieschnick and other registrars will have to contact registered voters for proof of citizenship.
Kieschnick says there’s a was to avoid these issues, but current state law doesn’t allow for it.
“It’s illegal for us to ask them for an ID,” Kieschnick said. “There’s no online voter registration in the state of Texas, so I think that has a lot of do with why some of these are getting through, because there’s no way to electronically vet these people.”
Going forward, the secretary of state’s office says it will maintain voter rolls on a monthly basis, including comparing voter registration information with data collected by the Department of Public Safety.
