By: Steven F. Hotze, M.D.
The two omnibus election protection bills, Senate Bill 7 and House Bill 6, are all hat and no cattle. They are both a mile wide and an inch deep. While they both clarify what Texas Election Code actions are illegal, and increase penalties for various election fraud activities, neither bill has the teeth for enforcement.
Democrat county district attorneys have refused to even examine complaints of vote fraud brought against fellow Democrats. The Texas Attorney General’s office, under Ken Paxton, has been extremely weak and ineffective in investigating the criminal organizations and perpetrators of massive voter fraud by the Democrats in the major metropolitan areas of Texas and in the Texas Valley.
The only way to eliminate fraudulent voter registration, fraudulent applications for ballot by mail, fraudulently cast ballots by mail, and fraudulent illegal voting in person is by adopting a biometric voter registration system. This could be fingerprints or handprints. This technology is currently available and easily adaptable to the election process. The Department of Public Safety has required fingerprint identification to acquire a driver’s license for the past six years. Anyone who purchases a gun is required to be fingerprinted.
Representative Tom Oliverson has introduced House Bill 3080, which would require the Secretary of State’s Office to implement a biometric voter registration system. If the Republicans are serious about election protection and stopping vote fraud, then they should give their wholehearted support to House Bill 3080, which was heard in the House Elections Committee on April 8.
Some major problems that we face to ensure election protection are illegal voter certificates, illegal applications for ballot by mail, illegal ballots by mail, illegal immigrants voting, and dead people and felons voting. The easiest way to stop this vote fraud is by adopting Representative Oliverson’s House Bill 3080, which would set up a biometric voting system in Texas.
Governor Abbott, Lt. Governor Patrick, and the Republican legislators all claim that election protection is a priority issue. Unless they adopt a biometric voting system, then any so-called election protection bills that they pass will be nothing more than window dressing.
So far, when it comes to election protection legislation, Abbott, Patrick and the Republicans are all hat and no cattle.