Bill Text: TX SR49 | 2021 | 87th Legislature 2nd Special Session | Introduced
Bill Title: Encouraging discretion at all levels of government when investigating and prosecuting cases of alleged illegal voting.
Sponsorship: Partisan Bill (Democrat 1)
Status: (N/A - Dead) 2021-08-31 - Received by the Secretary of the Senate [SR49 Detail]
Download: Texas-2021-SR49-Introduced.html
| By: West | S.R. No. 49 | |
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| WHEREAS, The right to vote is sacred and the exercise of | ||
| that right represents a cornerstone of our democracy; and | ||
| WHEREAS, The offense of illegal voting has long existed in | ||
| this state, and when first codified, stated that if "any person, | ||
| knowing himself not to be a qualified voter," nonetheless voted, | ||
| the person would be subject to a fine; and | ||
| WHEREAS, The offense has changed over the decades until | ||
| its eventual recodification in Section 64.012(a)(1), Election | ||
| Code, which states that a person commits the offense if the | ||
| person "votes or attempts to vote in an election in which the | ||
| person knows the person is not eligible to vote"; and | ||
| WHEREAS, The offense is punishable by incarceration, fine, | ||
| or both; and | ||
| WHEREAS, A person's knowledge of their own ineligibility | ||
| has always been an element of the offense; and | ||
| WHEREAS, It is a fundamental principle of criminal law in | ||
| this state that persons should only be convicted of an offense | ||
| when all required elements of the offense are shown to have been | ||
| satisfied; and | ||
| WHEREAS, Instances where a person knows that the person is | ||
| ineligible to vote in an election but nonetheless votes or | ||
| attempts to vote should be prosecuted; and | ||
| WHEREAS, Cases of genuine mistake, where the person votes | ||
| or attempts to vote under the honest belief that the person is | ||
| eligible to vote, should not establish the required element of | ||
| knowledge of one's own ineligibility; and | ||
| WHEREAS, In such cases, the ineligible person's vote | ||
| should not be allowed and any vote erroneously cast by an | ||
| ineligible person should not be counted, but a person should not | ||
| be criminally incarcerated for making an innocent mistake; now, | ||
| therefore, be it | ||
| RESOLVED, That the Senate of the State of Texas, 87th | ||
| Legislature, 2nd Called Session, hereby strongly believes that | ||
| no Texan should be prosecuted for the offense of illegal voting | ||
| if the person voted or attempted to vote based on a mistaken, | ||
| honest belief that the person was in fact eligible to vote; and, | ||
| be it further | ||
| RESOLVED, That the Texas Senate encourages the careful | ||
| exercise of discretion at all levels of government when | ||
| investigating and prosecuting cases of alleged illegal voting. | ||
