By State Rep. Brooks Landgraf
I believe God created each and every one of us, and that each life is a blessing. Genesis tells us that “the LORD God formed the man of dust from the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and the man became a living person.”
I also believe in the words of the Declaration of Independence, “that all men are created equal, endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.”
Because of this, because of my faith in the Almighty God and my faith in our constitutional republican form of government, I have fought to protect the sanctity of life and to uphold the rule of law at every turn while serving as your state representative. America will only be the land of the free and the home of the brave if we keep it that way.
That is my job after all – as a state elected official – to protect your God-given rights. Thomas Jefferson explains my role, and the role of anyone serving in the government, in the next line of his masterpiece, “to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed.”
The only reason the Texas Legislature exists is to secure the rights of Texans. And the only way to obtain the power necessary to secure those rights is granted by the people’s consent at the voting booth. The authority of any legitimate government depends on the consent of the people, expressed by votes in elections. God created man. Man created government.
It is for this reason that the integrity of our elections, the absolute confidence in the security of our electoral process, must be maintained and vigorously defended. The foundations of our system of government depend upon fair and free elections.
That is why I spent the majority of 2021 successfully fighting to make Texas elections more secure, and completed the biggest crackdown on voter fraud in Texas history. While more needs to be done, I want to be sure to let you know what has changed now that the primary election is just weeks away.
Senate Bill 1 was signed into law by Governor Abbott on September 7, 2021 and went into effect that same day. The bill creates uniform statewide voting hours, expands the minimum number of hours polls must be open, and increases transparency by allowing poll watchers to observe more aspects of the election process and requiring random audits of county voting system equipment.
SB 1 also bans drive-thru voting and the distribution of unsolicited applications for mail-in-ballots. Importantly, SB 1 requires mail-in-ballot applications to include a driver license number, voter ID card number, or the last four digits of the applicants’ Social Security number. This reflects the same voter ID requirements that apply to in-person voting.
SB 1 creates new felony offenses and increases penalties for election-fraud related offenses across the board. In fact, the bill I helped pass increases or creates criminal penalties for 25 different forms of voter fraud. Critics have deceitfully misrepresented the bill as being soft on voter fraud because a late amendment mistakenly lowered the penalty for ineligible voting from a felony to a misdemeanor. I am going to fix that error when the legislature convenes next.
Our new election integrity law does a lot of good things that should help every Texan have confidence in the results of our elections in 2022.
The new election integrity law creates numerous election fraud-related criminal offenses, 10 of which are felonies and many more can become felonies in certain situations.
Anyone who messes with Texas elections will find themselves on the fast track to becoming a felon thanks to this legislation. Appropriately, like all convicted felons, one of the penalties for these felons will be losing the right to vote.
Senate Bill 1 creates the offense of vote harvesting and expands the conduct that constitutes the offense of election fraud. The bill also:
Enhances the penalty for election fraud from a Class A misdemeanor to a state jail felony if the person committed the offense while acting in the person’s capacity as an elected official;
Creates offenses for the unlawful solicitation and distribution of an application to vote by mail and the unlawful distribution of early voting ballots and balloting materials;
Expands the conduct that constitutes the offense of making a false statement on a voter registration application and enhances the penalty to a state jail felony if compensation is involved;
Creates an offense for an election judge who knowingly provides a voter with an affidavit form used for accepting a voter that contains information that the judge entered on the form knowing it was false; and
Creates an offense for an election officer who refuses to accept a poll watcher for service when the acceptance is required.
We can all rest secure in the knowledge that Texas has the strongest election laws of any state in the nation. We can be confident in the results of our elections, ensuring that our elected leaders have the legitimate consent to govern and protect the God-given rights of every single Texan.
For more information on the 2022 primary election, and to see where your closest polling place is, please visit www.votetexas.gov. No matter who you plan to vote for or against, I hope every eligible voter takes the opportunity to cast a ballot in what will be the most secure election in Texas history.
God bless Texas!
