By Madden H.C.R. No. 117
77R5563 RVH-D
HOUSE CONCURRENT RESOLUTION
1-1 WHEREAS, The National Voter Registration Act of 1993 was
1-2 designed to set national standards for expanding voter registration
1-3 opportunities and for increasing turnout in federal elections;
1-4 although it has benefited the hundreds of thousands of Texans who
1-5 have registered under the Act, other provisions make ascertaining
1-6 the accuracy and currency of voter registration rolls more
1-7 difficult, make the registration rolls more costly to maintain, and
1-8 increase the opportunity for voter fraud; and
1-9 WHEREAS, The "Motor Voter Act," as it is popularly known,
1-10 prohibits the states from purging names of inactive voters from
1-11 their voter registration rolls until two federal election cycles
1-12 have passed after the date those names are entered on a "suspense"
1-13 list; previously, the Texas secretary of state between each primary
1-14 and general election purged the registration roll of the names of
1-15 voters whose registration had not been renewed and who had not
1-16 voted in the preceding general election cycle, as well as names of
1-17 voters who had moved, died, or were sent to prison; and
1-18 WHEREAS, By requiring that the names of inactive voters who
1-19 would otherwise be removed from the registration roll after two
1-20 years be placed on a "suspense" list for four years before being
1-21 purged, the Act has doubled the length of time that an inactive
1-22 voter's name must remain on the voter registration rolls, causing
1-23 some county registration rolls to swell with ineligible voters; and
1-24 WHEREAS, According to the Texas secretary of state, the state
2-1 had 23 counties with more than 100 percent registration in 1999,
2-2 including the South Texas counties of Brooks, Duval, Jim Hogg,
2-3 Kenedy, and McMullen; in Southwest Texas, Dimmit County had a voter
2-4 registration roll that was 30 percent larger than its adult
2-5 population; inflated registration rolls deflate voter turnout
2-6 statistics because ineligible voters who remain on those rolls for
2-7 longer periods of time then make up a larger proportion of total
2-8 registered voters than they did in the past; and
2-9 WHEREAS, Furthermore, before purging the voter registration
2-10 rolls, state and local governments must redirect staff and
2-11 resources to comply with the Act's complex system of procedures for
2-12 notifying inactive voters of their scheduled removal from the
2-13 registration roll; also adding to the cost of maintaining and
2-14 updating voter registration lists is the requirement for states to
2-15 keep a separate list of "suspense" voters to report to the Federal
2-16 Election Commission; and
2-17 WHEREAS, In November 2000, Texas had more than 2 million
2-18 names of voters on the "suspense" list; because people whose names
2-19 that appear on the "suspense" list are still considered eligible to
2-20 vote, those persons who are inclined to commit voter fraud have a
2-21 far greater opportunity to succeed given the abundance of
2-22 "suspense" voter names from which to choose and four years in which
2-23 to cast votes in their names; and
2-24 WHEREAS, The first step in involving more citizens in the
2-25 electoral process is getting people registered to vote; the Motor
2-26 Voter Act has truly expanded the opportunities for this to occur;
2-27 however, other mandatory provisions of the Act that determine how
3-1 the states are to maintain accurate and current registration rolls
3-2 have caused voter registration rolls to swell, deflated voter
3-3 turnout statistics, increased costs for state and local
3-4 governments, and created an ideal environment that abets voter
3-5 fraud; now, therefore, be it
3-6 RESOLVED, That the 77th Legislature of the State of Texas
3-7 hereby respectfully urge the Congress of the United States to enact
3-8 legislation amending the National Voter Registration Act of 1993 to
3-9 allow Texas to remove the names of inactive voters from voter
3-10 registration rolls upon the completion of one federal election
3-11 cycle rather than after two federal election cycles as currently
3-12 required; and, be it further
3-13 RESOLVED, That the Texas secretary of state forward an
3-14 official copy of this resolution to the president of the United
3-15 States, to the speaker of the house of representatives and the
3-16 president of the senate of the United States Congress, and to all
3-17 members of the Texas delegation to the congress with the request
3-18 that this resolution be officially entered in the Congressional
3-19 Record as a memorial to the Congress of the United States of
3-20 America.