One of the biggest bills that failed to pass during the legislative session that ended Monday would have required people to provide proof of U.S. citizenship to register to vote. Houston Public Media’s Andrew Schneider looks at some of the reasons the measure fell short.
Senate Bill 16 passed the Senate on a party-line vote, but the bill never made it to the House floor for consideration.
“I think it sort of became obvious that the implementation of the bill would be basically impossible without inconveniencing an astonishing number of voters.”
Jessica Hulett is Houston regional director for VoteRiders, a nonprofit that opposed SB 16.
“I think it was also probably competing with other sort of Republican priorities here in Texas, also, I think there was just a lot of really great, strong testimony from constituents at committee hearings and during the Senate vote.”
Hulett says more than half of all U-S states have considered bills requiring proof of citizenship to register to vote, and she says Texas will likely try again to pass such a bill in the future. I’m Andrew Schneider in Houston.
