Texas Gov. Greg Abbott on state voter roll cleanup: Texas: The Issue Is

AUSTIN, Texas - Recently, Texas removed nearly a million votes out of play for the November election. 

State officials claim they found a lot of names on county voter rolls that just simply didn't belong. The purge that resulted is somewhat of a rebooted overhaul, after a previous attempt a few years ago misidentified several thousand illegal voters. 

This recent effort has prompted accusations of voter suppression aimed at Texas Gov. Greg Abbott. 

Abbott spoke with FOX 7 Austin's Rudy Koski about the new process and the accusations.

GREG ABBOTT: It is a cleanup but not a one-time cleanup. It is a constant cleanup because we have a perpetual duty to ensure that there's nobody on the voter rolls who is in, who is ineligible to vote. It is the way, the primary way that we are able to ensure that we can cut down on any type of illegal voting.

RUDY KOSKI: This is really coming at a time at the height of the border surges that that were going on. Do you see a correlation?

GREG ABBOTT: So Rudy, before the new laws I signed in September of 2021, we were reviewing non-citizens through jury pools and through other strategies. The laws that I signed in 2021 enhanced our capabilities of reviewing non-citizens who may be able to vote. With that new tool, we were able to identify even more. It was 6,500, approximately, who were non-citizens who were registered to vote. And so...well, that obviously is a number higher than what we want to see. We want to see zero up there. But it does show that our new strategies about investigating this and getting to the bottom of it have revealed the non-citizens who are on the voter rolls that we're now able to get rid of.

RUDY KOSKI: Back in 2019, then-Secretary of State [David] Whitley did this that big review, 98,000 names flagged, 25,000 supposedly were actually naturalized citizens. It caused a huge problem with a huge black eye for the state. How is this review different from that misstep?

GREG ABBOTT: So what it does, it authorizes, actually requires Texas Department of Public Safety to do a matching, to match people who may be applying for a driver's license or any other type of card, to identify those who are non-citizens, as well as have the DPS undertake further review to make sure that non-citizens are not registered to vote in the state of Texas.

PREVIOUS COVERAGE

• Texas Secretary of State David Whitley resigns
• Texas Secretary of State defends controversial voter list
• Texas Sec. of State flags thousands of voters for citizenship check

RUDY KOSKI: ACLU in 2019 said this is voter suppression. They came out in regards to this one, no surprise, accusing this process as voter suppression. What's your reaction?

GREG ABBOTT: Well, it does suppress the vote of non-citizens. It suppresses the vote of dead people, suppresses the vote of people who moved away from Texas. And no one should be able to complain about that.

RUDY KOSKI: What do you say to these people who say Greg Abbott and then Dan Patrick and the Republicans are trying to just hold down the Latino vote, the brown and Black voters of this state, that everything that you're doing right now is to basically remain in power and and hold these folks down.

GREG ABBOTT: I don't care what your color is, Black, white, brown, Asian, whatever the case may be, I think everybody wants to see fair elections, with the rules followed with no illegal voting. Secondly, Rudy, listen, those Hispanic voters, those Black voters, those Asian voters, those are my voters also. I'm not trying to suppress them. I'm trying to get them to the polls to vote for me.

RUDY KOSKI: Do you think that the red-flagged names of people who supposedly did vote in 2021, should they be prosecuted? And will prosecutions actually happen this time?

GREG ABBOTT: Well, to be clear, listen, if somebody has voted illegally or violated other election integrity laws, 100%, they should be prosecuted.

RUDY KOSKI: Harris County is moving forward somewhat in defiance of state law and sending out voter registration and ballot information that's not requested. Basically thumbing a nose at Austin, thumbing the nose at the state of Texas.

GREG ABBOTT: Harris County is refusing to follow the laws. And two things need to happen. One is investigations and prosecutions need to take place against Harris County officials. But secondly, it appears, that the Secretary of State in the state of Texas may have to go in and really take over the operations of the election systems of Harris County if they do not get it straight. One thing we can perhaps, hopefully, all agree on, and that is the chaos in the election system in Harris County should not be allowed to continue.