Texas Pushes Back Against Widespread Disinformation About Voter Registration

The Texas election code, established by the Texas legislature, stipulates that seven forms of photo ID are acceptable and must be presented when voting in person.

“While federal law allows individuals to register to vote without a photo ID, Texans must actually show proof of ID to vote,” Nelson said. She also explains that the 1.2 million total from the Social Security Administration’s website relates to the number of times states ask to verify an individual’s social security number.

Derek Ryan, a political consultant with Austin-based Ryan Data Research, who maintains voter registration rolls, also pushed back on the claims. He criticized those repeating “this VERY fake narrative” … “as a scare tactic” … “to undermine our electoral process. … You aren’t helping actual election integrity efforts.”

The claim that 227,000 people registered to vote without an ID in one week was “false,” he said, and posted official SOS data showing the number who registered to vote in February and March totaled 234,552.

He told The Center Square, “It’s worth noting that the file decreases because of people who have been removed from the rolls because they have moved out of state, died, or been sent to prison.”

Data can also be misinterpreted because it may represent net additions or subtractions, only new registrations, or something else, he explained. For example, the Social Security Administration data doesn’t represent people who registered to vote without an ID or are new registrants.

“The numbers are the times their office [SOS] has attempted to verify that a [Social Security number] on their files is accurate/valid and that the person is still alive. In other words, instead of potential fraud, it’s actually the exact opposite. It’s cleaning up of the rolls,” he said.

He also noted that Nelson’s total “doesn’t include people who have registered to vote since the March Primary.”

Her net total includes “people who moved from one county to another and registered to vote in a new county who were already counted but are still technically new registrants.

“While there is a net increase of 57,711, there are actually more new registrants who replaced people who dropped off the rolls.”

Ryan told The Center Square “the disinformation is a huge concern” because Americans in both parties are repeatedly questioning election results. “Each time someone puts out information that is wrong, it builds more and more distrust in our electoral system,” he said.

According to the Secretary of State’s website, the total number of registered voters in Texas was over 17.9 million in November 2023.

Bethany Blankley is a contributor at The Center Square.The article was originally published in The Center Square.