Enforcing Texas’ election laws is crucial for their effectiveness.

Why Texas Needs to Enforce Election Laws

The Texas legislature has several bills on its docket that would increase penalties for voter fraud and give the state more tools to enforce election laws. But as we see in urban areas around the nation where left-wing district attorneys refuse to enforce laws against assault or thievery, the law matters little if it’s not enforced.

Here’s an analogy I like to use: For 12 years, I’ve lived about 25 miles outside Austin. About half of the cars outside my house clearly travel far faster than the posted 25 mph speed limit. But there’s never been a speeding ticket issued as law enforcement never enforces the speed limit. Since there’s never been a speeding ticket issued, there’s clearly no speeding problem in my neighborhood.

The same principle is at work when it comes to election fraud. Very little in the way of law enforcement assets has been dedicated to punishing election crimes in Texas, and you generally don’t find what you don’t look for.

The Current State of Election Fraud Prosecution in Texas

• In 2005, the office of the Texas attorney general only had a part-time prosecutor pursuing election fraud cases.
• About half of the people convicted of 534 separate election fraud counts in Texas from 2005 to early 2021 were in trouble for mail-in ballot fraud, also known as ballot trafficking.
• By June 29, 2021, the Texas AG’s office had 510 pending election fraud offenses against 43 individuals, with another 386 active investigations.
• The pace of successful prosecutions for election fraud could be linked to the number of prosecutors like a mathematical formula, with each full-time prosecutor able to bring a conviction every two months.

Unfortunately, as Texas made do with only three election crimes prosecutors plus a county DA joining in from time to time, even that modest deterrent against fraud at the polls was taken apart by a ruling from the state’s Court of Criminal Appeals in December 2021.

The Impact of the Stephens Ruling

The Stephens ruling determined that the Texas AG, an executive branch official, could not prosecute any criminal cases — regardless of statutes passed into law to the contrary. Thus, in one major ruling, the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals dissolved the Texas attorney general’s election fraud division.

This collapse in activity against election fraud doesn’t suggest election fraud has suddenly declined by more than 90 percent — after all, you don’t find what you aren’t looking for — rather, it suggests a vulnerability in our election integrity safeguards due to two factors.

The Challenges of Enforcing Election Laws

The first challenge is something seen in America at least since Aaron Burr turned a New York social club known as Tammany Hall into a formidable political machine to help elect Thomas Jefferson in the election of 1800. Today, local county DAs, whether elected through the assistance of corrupt fixers or not, can be reluctant to antagonize powers that might decide to remove an uncooperative DA from office.

The second challenge is one of expertise and priority. It takes a degree of specialization to successfully prosecute election fraud cases. Further, many DA offices are rightly focused on more serious offenses, such as murder, assault, and robbery, that have a direct bearing on public safety.

Possible Solutions

The Texas legislature is in its biennial session through the end of May. The Texas State Senate just passed SB 1195 on to the House in an effort to force the courts to revisit the Stephens decision. Short of amending the state Constitution, this effort may fail.

The Texas Constitution does offer a different path for lawmakers concerned with the enforcement of election fraud. The legislature has the power to create court districts as needed, with each district consisting of an elected DA and an elected judge. Thus, the Texas legislature could create five districts representing different regions of the state and empower these courts to have jurisdiction over criminal violations of election law, thus providing the specialization needed while minimizing the possibility of capture of such offices by local political machines adept at winning local elections through less than honest means.

Enforcing election laws is crucial to maintaining the integrity of our democracy. It’s time for Texas to take action and ensure that those who commit election fraud are held accountable.

About the Author: Chuck DeVore is chief national initiatives officer at the Texas Public Policy Foundation, vice chairman of the Golden State Policy Council, a former California legislator, and a retired U.S. Army lieutenant colonel. He’s the author of “The Crisis of the House Never United—A Novel of Early America.”

*As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases