AUSTIN, Texas — Texas Republicans are moving forward with a plan to increase penalties for illegal voting, even as fellow Republicans push back. 

What You Need To Know

  • On Monday, the Senate Committee on State Affairs voted to send two controversial election bills to the full Senate floor

  • One would increase the penalty for illegal voting from a misdemeanor to a felony, while the other makes it easier for people to request election audits

  • Opponents of the bill say they’re concerned it could serve to further disenfranchise already marginalized voters

  • The bill increasing the penalty for illegal voting is still likely to stall in the House without support from the Republican speaker

Last week, Gov. Greg Abbott added the voting item to the special session call, less than a month after he signed a bill into law that includes a provision lowering the maximum punishment. 

However, Texas House Speaker Dade Phelan does not seem willing to have the House revisit the issue of election security this session, saying that the lower chamber will “remain focused on its constitutional obligation to pass redistricting maps.”

That hasn't stopped Senate Republicans from moving forward on the issue. ​The Senate Committee on State Affairs heard public testimony Monday on two controversial elections bills, and later in the evening voted to send both bills to the full Senate floor. 

The first would increase the penalty for illegal voting from a misdemeanor to a felony, reversing a provision that lowered the punishment in the sweeping election overhaul bill, signed into law in September.  ​

“It just seems like common sense to us, that serious violations of the election code carried out knowingly by the offender, meet on merit felony classifications," said Alan Vera, chair of the Harris County Republican Party Ballot Security Committee. 

The push comes after both chambers and the governor signed off on an elections bill that included a provision reducing the penalty from a felony to a misdemeanor. Now, some people are expressing frustration at having to revisit the issue. 

“It would be one thing if this were an isolated incident, but it has now become routine for the Legislature to attempt to pass large, complex bills in a rushed manner, and later claiming to be surprised to learn of its contents," said James Slattery of the Texas Civil Rights Project. 

Opponents of the bill say they’re concerned it could serve to further disenfranchise already marginalized voters. 

“We've seen historically around the Jim Crow era and Civil Rights Act and also now with these new iterations of election changes, whenever there is any change to the election code, people are going to get confused. And that causes this chilling effect where they get scared to not only go vote or go register to vote. Because they might accidentally cause these issues or accidentally risk felony disenfranchisement now, but they're also scared to register their peers to vote because of these risks of penalties," said Katya Ehresman, grassroots organizer with Common Cause Texas. 

Senators on a committee hearing the voting proposal also took testimony on a bill that would make it easier for people to request election audits. 

“I think it's, however, important that we set up that regardless of where you are in the state, if you have a legitimate question about election irregularity, that you get an answer," said Sen. Paul Bettencourt, R-Houston. ​

Critics say it’s an attempt by Republicans to appease former President Donald Trump, who has repeatedly called for an audit of the 2020 election, despite any evidence of widespread voter fraud. 

The bill increasing the penalty for illegal voting is still likely to stall in the House without support from the Republican speaker.