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House Bill 1457 |
House Author: Hochberg |
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Effective: Vetoed |
Senate Sponsor: Duncan |
House Bill 1457 requires the secretary of state, not later than January 1, 2010, to adopt rules establishing a reasonable person standard for verifying the Texas driver's license number or state-issued personal identification card number on a voter registration application submitted by a voter registrar because the applicant has not met certain requirements. The bill requires the secretary of state to provide the registrar with specified information as part of the verification process and provides for the correction of an error in a voter registration record. The bill requires, if an application is rejected for lack of verification, that the written notice from the registrar to the applicant stating the reason for the rejection indicate which information could not be verified, if such information is provided to the registrar by the secretary of state.
Reason Given for Veto: 'House Bill No. 1457 would require the secretary of state to develop a system for accepting voter registration applications when the information provided by the voter does not match the [identifying] information for that individual in the records of the Texas Department of Public Safety (DPS) or other state agencies.
'Most significantly, this bill would put the responsibility for correcting any mistake in the wrong hands. The secretary of state does not see the application filed with the county voter registrar and therefore is not in a position to determine whether the mismatched information was due to a typographical error at the county level or to incorrect information given by the applicant. A misspelled name or incorrect date of birth on a voter registration application is a strong indication that the application was filled out by someone other than the rightful voter.
'Additionally, requiring acceptance of names on voter rolls that do not match the DPS database would impede the ability to keep the rolls accurate; voters’ names would not match other state records, which would consequently prevent them being removed from the voter rolls due to death, imprisonment or other legitimate reasons.
'While Texas should make every effort to ensure that clerical errors do not prevent legitimate voters from registering, the secretary of state is in no position to determine where the error occurred; this is best done at the county level where voter applications are received.'