HARRIS COUNTY, Texas — Houston-area Democrats are urging voters to check their registration status after a series of actions by state Republican leaders put the issue front and center.
Officials held a news conference Thursday to bring attention to the issue they say is creating uncertainty with weeks to go until the November General Election.
Earlier this week, Gov. Greg Abbott announced that 1.1 million people have been removed from the state's voter rolls since 2021.
"Illegal voting in Texas will never be tolerated," Abbott said in a statement. "We will continue to actively safeguard Texans’ sacred right to vote while also aggressively protecting our elections from illegal voting.”
On top of that, Attorney General Ken Paxton has waged efforts to highlight his concern about noncitizens registering to vote in Texas. This week, the elections director for the Secretary of State's Office told a Texas House committee there has not been any "unusual activity" detected of noncitizens registering to vote.
Still, Paxton has pressed on by directing raids of homes of members and volunteers for the League of United Latin American Citizens – tied to a two-year-old investigation around alleged election fraud. And on Wednesday, the attorney general announced the publishing of a 'legal advisory' on the issue of noncitizens registering to vote as well as an email tipline for such activity.
"It's the fear-mongering and the sowing of confusion that is dissuading and concerning voters," Houston City Councilmember Abbie Kamin said at Thursday's news conference.
Among the concerns of Democrats is the approximately 2 million Texas voters -- or around 13 percent of registered voters in the state -- who are currently on the state's suspense list.
Those on the list can still cast a ballot on Election Day but must take extra steps to verify their place of residence – an effort some worry leads to some voters choosing not to go through the process and walking away.
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"That is the intent, that's the idea, is to make it as hard as possible to vote," Rep. Gene Wu, a Democrat from Houston, said.
One Harris County voter who attended the news conference shared her experience with realizing she was on the suspense list.
"I was suspicious about it at first until I investigated it and found out that it never reached the postal carrier," Charlene Vincent told KHOU 11.
Vincent lives near Cypress and found out that although she had gone through the steps to verify her address, mailing issues led to her documentation never reaching its intended destination. Instead, she had to resolve the issue in person, driving nearly 30 miles to the county administration building in downtown Houston.
"To have only one place that can immediately resolve the issue, to me, is unconscionable," Vincent said.
The developments around the issue of voting only underscore the stakes of the upcoming November election, which includes a high-profile U.S. Senate race between Ted Cruz and Colin Allred. Experts say that invites more scrutiny over voters and their access to the ballot box.
"You've got about 2.5 million new registered voters since the last time that there was a major competition for the Senate seat that Ted Cruz holds," KHOU 11 Political Analyst Brandon Rottinghaus said in an interview. "So there's a lot of uncertainty about how they're going to vote and if they're going to vote."
Texans can check their voter registration status here.