Do Felons Register In Texas

A WFAA investigation indicates hundreds of ineligible felons in Texas' largest metropolitan counties voted in the November election.

DALLAS — Despite an attempt by the state and counties to remove ineligible Texas felons from voter rolls, WFAA found those same individuals are easily able to re-register to vote.

The WFAA investigation discovered loopholes in the state'southward elections arrangement that let hundreds of ineligible felons to cast ballots in the November 2018 full general election in major metropolitan areas like Dallas, Fort Worth, Houston and San Antonio.

The weaknesses discovered include clerical errors, a suspension down in notifications between state and canton officials, and faulty registration safeguards.

"In a lower turnout election, it could potentially make a difference in the result," state Rep. Stephanie Klick told WFAA.

The Fort Worth Republican chairs the Elections Commission in the Texas Business firm of Representatives.

"Nosotros need to practise a better job of maintaining this list," Klick said. "Anytime you have somebody ineligible vote, it cancels out the vote of somebody is eligible to vote."

Felons with a concluding conviction and who are serving their sentence in prison, probation or on parole cannot vote in Texas.

Only a WFAA investigation discovered hundreds, perhaps, thousands of felons casting ballots as recently as the November mid-term.

Ineligible felons who knowingly violate ballot constabulary face a possible felony, though just xvi voters accept been prosecuted statewide the past decade, records from the Texas Chaser General's Role prove.

The Texas Secretarial assistant of Country attempts to maintain accurate voter registration rolls by sending Texas counties periodic alerts on registered voters who are recently convicted of felonies. In turn, the counties, notify those individuals – and later officials conduct a review – send the state a list of ineligible felons to exist removed from their database.

The WFAA investigation began by comparing the list of Texans who voted last November from the Texas Secretary of State confronting the Texas Department of Public Safety'due south criminal database.

The analysis revealed voters, who are still serving final convictions for felonies, going to the polls without a problem.

I of them is a 52-yr-onetime Dallas woman however serving five years of probation for intoxication assault.

"Yous voted in the full general election in Nov," asked WFAA producer Mark Smith.

"Yes sir, I did," she replied.

WFAA is not identifying her since she could face some other felony for voting illegally.

"I asked my probation officer, could I vote, and he said he didn't know. I asked my daughter, she said I couldn't vote. There was a guy out hither giving out fliers, I asked him and he gave me a number. They said I could vote. I went up to John Neely Brown and voted," she explained.

And no one at the voting location questioned her right to vote, the felon said.

"No sir," she told WFAA. "I gave them my ID because it is current and no ane said I couldn't vote or that I was on probation or nothing like that."

Records prove the Texas Secretary of Land alerted Dallas County to her final felony confidence in April 2018. Acting on the alert, Dallas Canton investigated and removed her from its voter database in May. But records show she re-registered on Aug. sixteen, 2018, and voted in the November mid-term election.

WFAA learned that her instance isn't unique. Her case highlighted one loophole in which ineligible felon voters get removed from the voting rolls, merely to re-register to vote within weeks or months.

One 36-year-old Dallas man, for example, was convicted of felony set on in Jan 2017, and got three years of probation, court records testify. While Dallas County removed him from the voter database the following month, he re-registered to vote in March 2018, and cast a election concluding November.

WFAA likewise plant a breakup in the notification process. The Texas Secretary of State failed to alarm counties about registered voters recently bedevilled of felonies, including the following examples:

Dallas County elections officials said the country never warned them most a 38-year-old man convicted of burglary in 2017. Despite a last felony conviction in March 2017, he voted in Nov.

WFAA found a 48-twelvemonth-old man who was convicted of his tertiary DWI in September 2017 and received a five-year probated sentence. When questioned, Dallas officials said the state never alerted them near his confidence, and he voted in Nov.

A 38-year-old man is still serving 2-years of probation for possession of a firearm by a felon. However, he registered to vote without a problem terminal June and cast a election in Nov. Records point county officials were never notified of the conviction. He is all the same on the active voter list.

Clerical errors also contributed to ineligible felons voting:

One 64-year-old woman was convicted of felony theft and received v years of probation in August 2018. Merely Dallas County officials said the records they received from state officials indicate she just received a five-day judgement, and therefore they never removed her from the voter rolls.

WFAA also found voters who were convicted of felonies just days or weeks earlier the November 2018 ballot also voted. The breakdown occurs, officials said, because information technology takes the Texas Secretary of State days or weeks to alert counties nearly the convictions, especially those convictions outside the home canton of the voter.

In all, the WFAA analysis indicates more than than 250 ineligible felons voted in Dallas County last November.

The analysis also establish Tarrant County had more than 100 ineligible felons voted in November; while Harris County had more than 200, and Bexar County had some 150.

But those are just the felons who voted. Many more than that remain registered but just didn't vote in November.

"A few felons are voting and that is a trouble and we're doing everything we can exercise to keep that from happening," said County Gauge Dirt Jenkins, D-Dallas County.

"It's troubling that people are re-registering," Jenkins told WFAA. "I'm non shifting the arraign off people who are re-registering considering they have no business doing that while they are serving sentence equally a felon, but I'chiliad just wondering if our state agents are making it articulate to them that they cannot vote."

Still, he said, Texas needs to modernize its voting registration system.

"Online voter registration would largely fix this considering you could write into your programme means to cease people from re-registering right later you knock them off," Jenkins said. "The majority of states in this country have on-line registration."

"Should the legislature decide to add additional verification requirements at the time a voter submits a registration application, our function stands ready to implement…," the Secretarial assistant of State'southward office said in a statement to WFAA.

Once felons complete serving their judgement, they're legally allowed to re-register to vote. Individuals with misdemeanor convictions retain the correct to vote.

"I just went out and voted, I thought it was the right matter to practice," that 52-year-old woman felon in Dallas told WFAA.

Her example illustrates a weakness in the system revealing that no ane is quite certain at present who is registered to vote in Texas.

Do Felons Register In Texas,

Source: https://www.wfaa.com/article/news/how-felons-can-easily-re-register-to-vote-after-removal-from-database/287-944ab032-fb98-430f-91bd-a05df6ed4d47

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