Latest news with #Bill511
Yahoo
25-04-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Texas lawmakers consider barring counties from mailing unsolicited voter registration forms
This coverage is made possible through Votebeat, a nonpartisan news organization covering local election administration and voting access. Sign up for Votebeat Texas' free newsletters here. Before the 2024 election, two Texas counties mailed out voter registration forms to hundreds of thousands of residents, unsolicited. Only a small share were returned, but the move sparked a backlash from some Republican lawmakers who said the mailings could make it easier for ineligible people to register and cast ballots. Now, bills moving through the Texas Legislature would bar counties from sending out voter registration forms to people who didn't request them. It would also bar the state from using public money to support such mailings by other groups. State Sen. Paul Bettencourt, a Houston Republican who sponsored Senate Bill 511, said it would put voter-registration applications under the same restrictions that are already in place for mail-ballot applications. A 2021 Texas law — which faces challenges in federal court — barred election officials from sending out unsolicited mail-ballot applications. State Rep. Tom Oliverson, a Houston-area Republican, filed a bill identical to SB 511 in the House. Both bills have been advanced and could soon reach the floors of their respective chambers. 'The government shouldn't be putting their thumb on the scale by doing this without a solicitation from the voter,' Bettencourt said, adding that the effort is a 'horrible waste of taxpayer money.' Voting rights groups said the bills could also make it harder to get registration forms in other ways. In all, three large Texas counties, all Democratic strongholds, moved last year to mail out voter registration applications to residents who were eligible but not yet registered, ahead of the presidential election. In Harris County, the effort quickly stalled following criticism from Bettencourt. Travis and Bexar moved forward, and ran into challenges from Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton, who sued to stop the effort. In Bexar County, Paxton's lawsuit was dismissed. In Travis County, Democratic officials sued Paxton and the state over the attempt, and that case is still moving through the courts. Bexar County spent $261,000 on the mailing and got back about 15,000 registrations out of them, or 11% of the 136,349 voter registration forms that were mailed out, according to county officials. That's well short of the initial goal of 75,000 that county officials discussed. But Bexar County Commissioner Justin Rodriguez, who championed the program, said he would support such an effort again. He said the cost isn't a waste of taxpayer dollars but instead 'an investment in democracy and community outreach.' 'Of those 15,000 newly registered, I think almost 85% of those actually participated. And so to me, it was successful in that regard,' Rodriguez told Votebeat. 'You got more people engaged in the process. And that was the goal from the outset.' Travis County officials declined to comment citing pending litigation. Bettencourt said the bill does not prevent deputy volunteer voter registrars and candidates from distributing voter registration applications. But some voting rights advocates say language in the bill that says state officials 'may not distribute a form on which a person may apply for registration to a person who didn't request it' is too broad. They say it could have implications for election officials who, for instance, choose to display voter registration application forms on the counter of their elections offices. 'If you are in a voter registration office, you have to say a set of magic words in order to get a voter registration application. You have to specifically request it,' said Emily Eby French, policy director for Common Cause Texas. If either bill clears both the House and Senate, the proposal will head to Gov. Greg Abbott's desk. Natalia Contreras covers election administration and voting access for Votebeat in partnership with the Texas Tribune. She is based in Corpus Christi. Contact Natalia at ncontreras@ Disclosure: Common Cause has been a financial supporter of The Texas Tribune, a nonprofit, nonpartisan news organization that is funded in part by donations from members, foundations and corporate sponsors. Financial supporters play no role in the Tribune's journalism. Find a complete list of them here. Tickets are on sale now for the 15th annual Texas Tribune Festival, Texas' breakout ideas and politics event happening Nov. 13–15 in downtown Austin. Get tickets before May 1 and save big! TribFest 2025 is presented by JPMorganChase.
Yahoo
07-02-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
House Democrats join Republicans in passing anti-sanctuary city bill, pointing to compromise
The New Hampshire State House, Feb. 6, 2025 (Photo by Ethan DeWitt/New Hampshire Bulletin) The House nearly unanimously passed a bill to ban 'sanctuary city' policies in the state Thursday, after Democrats sided with Republicans to advance a version they argue is less drastic. House Bill 511 passed, 351-6, without discussion from either side. Six Democrats voted no. Republicans were elated. 'Today House Republicans resoundingly and unanimously voted to ban dangerous and lawless sanctuary city policies and to keep our schools from being used as housing for illegal aliens,' said Majority Leader Jason Osborne, in a statement released after the vote. 'Our position is clear: We will not allow our communities to be overrun by an invasion of illegal aliens.' Democrats, who broadly oppose anti-sanctuary city bills, did not release a statement. Many Democratic representatives declined to answer questions about the vote. But some said they had voted for HB 511 because the latest amended version lessened its impact and was preferable to a stricter alternative. The bill states that 'no state government entity, local government entity, or law enforcement entity shall knowingly enact, issue, adopt, promulgate, enforce, permit, maintain, or have in effect any sanctuary policy.' Sanctuary policies are defined as laws or policies that prohibit or impede law enforcement agencies from cooperating or communicating with a federal immigration agency – and that hamper police officers' compliance with federal immigration laws. The bill allows the state attorney general to file a lawsuit against any locality that carries out those policies. It is not clear how many cities and towns have such policies; two examples are Lebanon and Hanover, which both passed 'welcoming ordinances.' Republicans have argued the policies encourage undocumented people to move to those cities, knowing it is less likely they will be turned over to federal authorities like Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). House Democrats say they are opposed to the laws in general. But they have supported an amendment to this bill added by the House Criminal Justice and Public Safety Committee. That amendment states that unless otherwise authorized by law, New Hampshire law enforcement are barred from investigating or taking part in investigations into the citizenship of someone they arrest. Those investigations may only be carried out by ICE or other federal agencies, the amendment states. 'The vote on HB 511 was a harm-reduction measure,' wrote Rep. David Meuse, a Portsmouth Democrat, in a Jan. 26 Facebook post. 'As amended, the bill has the support of the Immigrant Rights Network here in New Hampshire. Since Republicans may have had the votes to pass this legislation unamended, Democrats on the committee worked hard and worked together to try to mitigate and minimize its potential harm.' Rep. Alissandra Murray, a Manchester Democrat, agreed that Democrats' participation was intended to pare back the legislation. She said the amendment had come out of bipartisan negotiations with Rep. Terry Roy, the chairman of the House Criminal Justice Committee. 'We absolutely agree that people who are committing crimes in our communities should not be continually just let out and not face the consequences of their actions,' she said in an interview. 'But we also think that it's important for law enforcement to maintain the trust they have with immigrant communities, which requires them to not have to be forced to detain every single person that they come across who may have an ICE detainer.' By adding guardrails that restrict police from proactively taking action by reporting people to ICE, Murray argued the bill would prevent law enforcement from being deputized against law-abiding people. Instead, police departments would be required to contact ICE only in cases when they arrested a person and noticed that ICE had flagged the person with a detainer request. The bipartisan negotiation over the bill echoes previous instances where Murray and Roy have worked together on the Criminal Justice Committee on behalf of their parties. In 2024, the two helped steer a compromise bail reform bill through the Criminal Justice Committee and ultimately to Gov. Chris Sununu's desk, who signed it in August. Republican Gov. Kelly Ayotte, who opposes the 2018 legislation that sought to lessen bail conditions, has been critical of the 2024 compromise bill and is pushing for further legislation to restrict bail this year. 'In the Criminal Justice Public Safety Committee, we have a track record of doing strong bipartisan work together,' Murray said Thursday. 'That's really our priority as a committee: passing legislation that can stand the test of time and meet the needs of our constituents without falling prey to national talking points.' But HB 511 may not be the final word on anti-sanctuary city legislation this year. The Senate passed its own bill, Senate Bill 71, which bans sanctuary city policies but does not include guardrails that restrict law enforcement from working with ICE. That bill will be taken up by the House in the coming months. Meanwhile, HB 511 itself has not yet left the House; it goes next to the House Finance Committee and will need to pass one more vote on the House floor before it can head over to the Senate. That leaves more opportunities for the bill to be amended again. Ayotte ran in part on tightening New Hampshire's immigration laws and repeatedly touted her support for banning sanctuary cities during her 2024 campaign. With Republican majorities in the House and Senate, legislation is likely to pass both legislative chambers. But it is less obvious what form that final bill might take. In contrast to House Democrats, Senate Democrats have been unequivocally opposed. At a press conference, Sen. Suzanne Prentiss, a Lebanon Democrat, praised her city's ordinance that bars law enforcement from acting on ICE detainers unless the person has been charged with a crime. And she spoke against the Senate version of the bill. 'I won't be supporting it,' she said. 'I think that we're conflating civil and criminal.' '… If you're arrested, and you are, you have a criminal offense, then that's one thing,' she said. 'But if you are in our community working on becoming a citizen, we are not going to target you and do the job of ICE.'
